


Snippets of Friendship

by BellaP



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Drama, F/M, Family, Friendship, Humor, M/M, Romance, Science Fiction, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-30
Updated: 2012-10-23
Packaged: 2017-11-11 01:53:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 24,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/473151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BellaP/pseuds/BellaP
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was the only female friend he ever had. But really, to be James T. Kirk's friend wasn't easy. Really wasn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Kobayashi Maru

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously that Star Trek 2009 doesn't belong to me. I'm doing this for fun only. The only thing in my possession is a DVD. 
> 
> PS: English really isn't my first language.

"I'm gonna beat the Kobayashi Maru." It was the first thing that Selece heard in that fine morning minutes after she entered the Library and a shadow fell over her, blocking the lights and obscuring the view of her PADD. She lifted her gray eyes and locked it into Kirk's beautiful baby blue eyes.

"Some people use this place to study beside flirt with newbies." Was her usual response every time James T. Kirk came within her personal space, followed by a snort.

"Did you hear me?" Jim sat on the chair next to her and Selece rolled her eyes. Yes, she had heard him, very well actually, and she didn't know why she still listened him in the last three years they knew each other. It wasn't a very pleasant first encounter, that's for sure. Selece was failing in Advanced Sub-Spacial Calculus and her instructor suggested that she took a tutor. Unfortunately the best student in that class was also the most famous in all the Academy.

It was animosity at the first sight from Selece's part and flirt mixed with good humor from Kirk's part that made their strange friendship grow. That and the fact that the girl with short black hair was a Chizetan from the warrior class with the strength of ten men, fast like a feline and with a mean right hook that always helped save Jim's ass from his bar fights was a little plus too.

"Yeah, I heard you. I heard that you want to have your ass give it back to you for the third time. Really Kirk... Are you some kind of a masochist? I didn't know that side of you before."

"You're just like Bones, incapable to believe in my skills."

"What skills?"

"Funny my beautiful Warrior Goodness, very funny." He said with a hint of sarcasm and Selece rolled her eyes again when she heard the infamous nickname. Jim started to call her that after one of his thousand bar fights where, unfortunately, she was put in the middle and had to kick some drunks behind out of the bar before they could beat Kirk into a bloody pulp.

"I'm seeing you laugh. But really, you came here just to say that?"

"No... I came because I want you with me in the test."

"Forget it."

"Why?"

"If you want to shame yourself be my guest, but don't drag me to the bottom with you. I did that damn test once in my life and for me is enough. Don't want to repeat the trauma."

"Ah... come on. It will be fun."

"For who?"

"For me... Because I'll be the one who will give the last laugh to the face of the damn bastard who made that test."

"Or you'll be the one who everybody will be laughing at when you fail that test... Again. And I'll be the first in line to laugh."

"You like to see me suffer, don't you?"

"It's the most pleasurable thing in my life."

"You're the worse female friend that I ever had."

"I didn't know you had so many. Aside from your fuck buddies, I thought that I was your only female friend who you didn't take to your bed."

"That is because I respect you too much..." Selece snorted again. "and because you know your kung fu too well for my taste."

"Coward."

"Why my dear... I'm starting to think that you want a piece of me." He smirked at her and once more Selece rolled her eyes, a normal reaction every time she was too close to James Kirk and hearing his babbling. "So... About the test..."

"I thought that I said no. Didn't my 'forget it' implied that?"

"Again... You're doubting my skills and this hurt, a lot." Kirk smirked to her and Selece frowned. Something was not right. The blond was too confidant that he would beat the test that was the bane of existence between ten and ten cadets. And if she knew him, what she did very well after all this time, she could say with absolute sure that he was planning something. Something big and possibly illegal.

"Okay... Spill. What are you planning to do? I can see in your eyes a very suspicious glint and this usually means that you have some evil scheme in mind."

"What? Lil' old me? How can you doubt of me that way? Now I'm really hurt." Kirk put his hand above his heart and his face had the most innocent expression that Selece ever saw in her life, and that coming from Jim only meant one thing: trouble.

"You're going to cheat." It was an accusation and the lack of response from Kirk just gave the answer the girl was looking for.

"Okay... The test is a cheat itself. It's a no-win scenario and I can't accept this. And if you're not going to help me being in my team, at least help me beat thate test."

"You lost me. Come again?"

"You're a trainee in Security Engineering and have the access key for half of the rooms in the Academy, so I thought..."

"No, you didn't think, because if you had you would know that this is a very bad idea and I won't help you to screw your future in the Star Fleet. Or screw my future along with yours."

"Please, Selece, please?" Leonard always said that Kirk's puppy dog eyes could be anybody's doom because it could melt even the most glacial heart. And a glacial heart means McCoy's ice heart. But the Chizetan was immune to the man antics, so the only thing that she did was to put away her PADD, get up from her chair, turning from Kirk and going to the Library next exit. And for a minute or two she thought that her actions was an enough answer for him, but then she heard his voice and that made her groan.

"Wait!" Jim ran to catch up with the girl and put an arm on her shoulders. Some females cadets that were passing by giggled when they saw the couple and Kirk smiled beatifically to them. Selece only shook her shoulders to dislodge the arm and glared to the blond who was now smiling in her direction. "At least you'll cheer for me?"

"I'll pray for you to give up of this stupid idea and come to your senses."

"It's not gonna happen."

"So I'll pray for you to not get caught."

"I won't get caught. Trust me." He blinked one eye to her and Selece sighed. She really wanted to believe in Kirk's words but those, usually, were very empty when the main subject were women or studies.

And like she foresaw, two days later after Jim took the test, an announcement was made through the Academy calling all the third year cadets to the Auditorium. And when Admiral Barnett called Jim's name the only thing that crossed Selece's mind was that she had to pray more, even if her race didn't have Gods.


	2. Blind Date

"Please tell me that this is a joke." It was the first thing that Selece said when her companion sat at the table.

"I wish." Leonard McCoy gruff voice answered her.

"Let me guess... Jim said that he would meet you here for a dinner. Something between friends because he felt guilt for not having enough time for us after he became the Enterprise's new Captain."

"Yeah... I thought that it was suspicious, especially after he told me what was the restaurant's name." Leonard looked around them. The place only had couples as guests, far away to be a place for a friendly reunion and more like a romantic reunion. Or a damn blind date.

"Seriously McCoy, after all these years you still believe in that man?" Selece made a negative gesture with her head and let out a sigh, taking the menu on the table and starting to read it.

"Sometimes I ask myself the same thing."

"Let me guess again... In the Captain's next physical there will be a lot of hypos waiting for him."

"You're good in that guess thing." Leonard did the same thing as Selece, taking the menu and starting to read it too. "So can you guess what I'm thinking now?"

"Besides what kind of hypo you'll use on Jim? Maybe something close to revenge?"

"Kind of. The first thing is what the hell Jim was thinking."

"He doesn't think, he reacts."

"True. The second thing is what kind of revenge would be enough for him to see that we don't like each other in that way." Selece sighed again. Leonard did make a fine some point. For some reason or another Jim got in his crazy mind that his two best friends would be perfect for each other. Something about a girl like Selece, strong minded and stubborn like a mule, be the exactly match for McCoy and his bad humor and scary hypos.

"Maybe we could write a romantic letter to Commander Spock and sign Jim's name on it." The Chizetan suggested and silence came over the table for a couple of seconds before Selece started to laugh at the disgusted face that Leonard made.

"First: that green blooded hob-goblin wouldn't understand half of it. Second: seriously, a letter? I believe that Jim doesn't even know how to write."

"Now you're being cruel."

"I was fooled by a kid into a blind date and I'm trapped for the next five years in a damn spaceship because of this same kid, what's your excuse?"

"Jim Kirk is my best friend and to be friend with him it's enough excuse."

"True again."

"Or maybe we could order the most expensive bottle of wine in this fine restaurant, along with the most expensive food and send the check to the Captain." Selece said in a very relaxed voice while her eyes passed over the menu searching for the perfect thing to order. Leonard only looked at her with a surprised expression before the same expression morphs into a smirk.

"Now you're being cruel."

"Well... He set the date, made the reservations and plotted against us. It's only fair that he'll be the one to pay for all this trouble."

"I'm starting to think that this night won't be a waste of my time... finally."

"Glad that we agreed Dr. McCoy. So if you don't mind..." She raised an arm and called out loud. "Waiter!"

And it was because of that that two days later, before the Enterprise leaves the space port, that Captain Jim Kirk received a message from a place called The Blue Bourbon asking for him to drop there to solve an unfinished business. A business that left him with less four thousand credits in his pockets and a furious Jim rushing through Enterprise ready to kill her CMO.

"BONES!" He entered the sickbay like a tornado. "Four thousand credits?" The blond fumed when he found his friend. "What the hell had in that damn food? Gold?" Leonard only smirked while he twirled a hypo in his fingers. Revenge really was a plate that you eat cold. In this case... You eat and make your Captain pay the expenses. Now life was good.


	3. The End of The Universe

"I think I'm in love." Came the revelation followed by a sigh.

"Oh shi... The world is ending, isn't it? Worse, the Universe." Selece's gray eyes looked at the far away expression on her Captain's face and she gulped. That wasn't good.

"I'm serious." Jim frowned when he heard the unbelievable tone in his friend's voice.

"Okay..." She said with a long pause while she got up from the chair and went to Jim, putting her hand on his forehead to check the temperature. "No fever... So you're not hallucinating. Should I call Dr. McCoy here? Maybe you're having an allergic reaction to something." She went to the comm in the security panel ready to call Leonard but Jim's hand on her wrist stopped her.

"I'm not having an allergic reaction. To have one of those first you must be in contact with the allergen and I didn't..."

"I don't need a Biology class right now."

"So why don't you believe in me?"

"Captain... Jim, it's you who's talking, telling me that you're in love. Seriously... You, who only had dates during the Academy and before that I don't even wanna know."

"I'm capable of falling in love." He pouted and Selece rolled her eyes. Capable of falling in love her ass. It would be hard with him having the maturity level of a five years old child.

"I don't doubt this... But you're not mature enough to be in love." He pouted again but soon forgot her jab and changed the topic pretty fast. He was good with that thing of turning someone's mind upside down with the change of subject.

"Are you not going to ask me who is the luck girl?" The way he was smiling when he made the question put another doubt in Selece's mind. There was something very odd behind that smile and she had the sensation that later she would regret having this conversation with Kirk.

"All right! Who is the luck girl?" Jim's smile became bigger and Selece took one step back away from him. She was certain that smiling like that Kirk would soon blow up like a balloon, because he surely looked like one growing with happiness.

"It's not a girl." The smile didn't leave his face.

"Now you're scaring me. I remember you telling me once that when you met Nyota..."

"That's not fair! Everybody in this ship can call her Nyota but me. I'm the Captain, I should have some privileges."

"Anyway... You said that Nyota thought that you were a dumb guy whose life purpose was to always get drunk, in bar fights and bang farm animals. So... You're not in love with a space cow, are you?"

"Funny..." His face was everything but amused. "Should I start to laugh now or later?"

"Okay... I'm running out of jokes. Now seriously, who is this poor thing that was so unlucky to catch the Captain's eyes?"

"I thought you were running out of jokes." He crossed his arms over his chest, still with the unamused expression.

"Okay, I'm stopping." Silence came between them for a couple of minutes. "And I'm waiting."

"Spock." Jim said.

"What? What about the Commander?"

"It's Spock." More silence for at least three minutes with Selece blinking in Jim's direction. Finally, when the clock struck the fourth minute she reacted with a long and very amused laugh.

"You're kidding, right? Today is April's Fool and I forgot or something, isn't?" She kept laughing even if the Captain's face was expressionless. "You're not joking."

"Again... Are you seeing me laugh?"

"Oh my..." She stopped, frowned and let her body weight fell down on the first closest and available chair. "Doe... Does McCoy know about this?"

"Well... I plan to tell him next. But after your reaction I'm starting to reconsider this. I mean... You first thought were that I was sick, then you laughed, probably with Bones he'll shot me first with a dozen of hypos and ask me later if I lost my mind."

"Probably. Really Jim, Spock? I mean... It's crazy. You two hate each other..."

"Hate is a very strong word. Dislike is more like it. But in my case..."

"It's love."

"Yeah." Jim made a miserable expression that made Selece's heart hurt for him. It seemed that this "in love" thing was only from Jim's side and that sucked.

"How did this happen? And where was I when this happened?"

"Well... I don't know." Jim sat on the chair next to Selece and let out another sigh. "But I think you're right. Me, being in love, is the end of the Universe."

"Nah... I think it's normal. One day you would have to grow up. Now McCoy stopping being grumpy or to threat us with hyposprays... This is the end of the Universe." That made Jim laugh and Selece smiled. Her job as best friend was done here, but she knew that the worst part was about to come. First it would be to help Jim to get Spock, because she knew him well enough to know that nothing will stop him to catch that Vulcan. The next would be to stop McCoy from killing Jim. Because really, if the doctor didn't hate the pointed eared bastard before, now he would loath him for the rest of his life. Normal, because if he didn't react that way Selece would be afraid, very afraid, because it means that the Apocalypse was about to come. Or the end of the Universe.


	4. Dislike at the First Sight

"I really don't understand." Selece's instructor, Lieutenant Commander Warren, tsked under his breath while his eyes passed over his PADD. "You're a good student, but it seems that you can't grasp the concept of what I teach in this class."

"Sir, it's just..." He raised a hand, stopping any explanation she could give to him.

"Your father is a scientist, a very brilliant one too, so I thought it would be easy..." And it was a that point that she stopped listen to his speech. Technically her father was her creator, what was very common in her race. The Chizetan Warriors Class were a bunch of genetic created babies made to be the perfect soldiers. They've a stronger and lighter bone structure than humans, their heart was bigger and faster to pump more blood in their system and was in the right side of their ribcage. Lungs were bigger too for more oxygen so they didn't lose breath easily and the stomach was smaller so they won't get hungry too fast and are able to spend days without food.

The metabolism was faster too and synthesized the proteins, vitamins and others to avoid the gain of weight or to eliminate any drug injected into their system in a blink of an eye. There were extra cells to help the system by fabricating enzymes that sustain all the organs in their body, giving an extra source of energy, and their brain was genetically advanced to learn fast and think faster under pressure. But even with all her great attributes she still couldn't understand Sub-Spacial Calculus. Give her any security system to program and she could do that with her eyes closed, but Physics was not her thing.

"And because of that I'm assigning you a tutor."

"I beg your pardon?"

"A tutor, cadet. You have to pass this class if you plan to graduate this Academy, so a tutor would be the best option for you." He scribed something in his PADD with the stylus and a minute later handed her a memory car. "Here it is. This cadet is the best student in my class, even if his behavior is a little out of the norms." She caught the card and suppressed a sigh. Selece didn't think that a tutor would be of much help, but she needed to pass, even if her final test come back with only a 'passable'. "Good luck."

Good luck indeed, was what Selece thought when on Friday afternoon she entered the Library, rounding some tables searching for the one supposed to teach her Calculus and almost groaned when she saw a pretty blond guy at the table talking with a group of females who started to giggle because of something he said.

She approached the table and cleared her throat, getting the group attention. Pretty baby blue eyes looked at her and a big smile blossomed on James T. Kirk's face.

"Well ladies, now it's time to work. If you all excuse me." He smiled to the girls, making some of them blush and the others let out another giggle. Selece had to stop herself to snort.

"Bye Jim." They chorused, leaving the table and the two of them alone.

"You must be Selece." His clear eyes looked her up and down and he gave her a flirt smile.

"And you must be the guy who is supposed to teach me." She raised her PADD. "James Kirk." She read.

"That's me." His smile became bigger and bigger with every minute that passed between them.

"Of course it is." She rolled her eyes and pulled a chair from the table, sitting on it. "Well, I think it's better if we start, I have a speech in about one and a half hour."

"Speech? Interesting. Are you giving it?"

"I'm watching it."

"It's about what?" She raised her eyebrows. Was he flirting with her?

"Xenobiology." It was possibly for someone to smile so much without hurting oneself? Because if it was, Kirk was one of these people.

"Xenobiology." And repeat everything that she said was making Selece believe that this guy wasn't so smart like her instructor told. "I have a friend that is studying this."

"Good for him."

"Does that means that you're good in anatomy, human or alien?"

"No... This means that I'll learn in what stunt level I'll have to put a phaser to knock out a Robbaw without causing permanent damage."

"Sound dangerous." And he was still smiling for Pete's sake.

"Do you know what is dangerous? Me. If I don't pass in Calculus I'll be a dangerous person who will take an enormous pleasure in break every bone in your body and I can do that with only one hand." Now she was the one smiling, a very sweetly, perverse smile.

"Hard to get. I like it in a woman."

"I think you didn't understand. I'm here to study, not to date, and if you're not gonna do that I'm leaving." She grabbed her things and got up from the chair.

"Wait!" His hand on her wrist stopped her to stormed out of the Library. "Maybe we started this with the wrong foot."

"Wrong foot, wrong leg, arms and everything in the middle." He let her go and sighed.

"Okay. Please, sit." Selece looked to him with suspicious in her eyes and after a minute or two she finally sat. "I'm James Kirk and you are?"

"Selece."

"Selece... Don't they have last names in the place where you come from?" Jim joked, remembering that it was because of a question like that that everything changed in his life.

"Actually, no. I mean, not in the warrior class. The firsts protoforms were baptized with numbers but the scientists thought that it was too formal and cold to call a living rational person by PT 001..."

"Wait, stop! What?" Jim's confused face made Selece smile a little.

"I'm a Chizetan from the warrior class."

"Man... You weren't kidding when you said that you could break me with one hand."

"I usually don't do jokes."

"And our conversation in these last minutes was what?"

"Myself?"

"I like you." And again Kirk was smiling. Humans were a weird species for getting happy with the smallest things.

"Like me enough to teach me this awful subject?"

"It's not that hard and I don't believe that you're so bad with it..." He said, getting his PADD to look for the notes that Commander Warren left to him about Selece's progress. "Holy shit! You suck." Her grades were very low, no wonder she needed a tutor. And he was the best.

"Thank you mister obvious. And it seems that you rock, so can you teach me or not?"

"And what will be my prize when you pass?"

"Have the pleasure to not feel my fist in your face?"

"Oh... You like things rough. Tell you what, if you pass you're going to a dinner date with me." Selece was pretty sure that she learned very well the Standard language for Kirk comprehend her well enough to see that she didn't want anything with him.

"You have no right to make this kind of deal."

"Actually, I have. You see, I'm not the one failing in Calculus."

"And you're also is not the only one good at it."

"No, I'm not. But I'm the best at it. So..."

"And if I don't pass?"

"Impossible. You'll pass, trust me."

"That will be very hard."

"So we have a deal?" He extended his hand in her direction and she looked at it for some seconds, weighing her options and coming to the conclusion that yes, she was that desperate.

"Deal." They shook hands and after that Kirk started with what was a very long lesson about Sub-Spacial Calculus.

In the end, Selece passed with a 'satisfactory' in her test and had to go out on a dinner date with Jim. And it wasn't so bad as she thought, because she had fun arguing with the blond and laughing at the stories about his best friend Bones. And after that when she saw that her schedule and life was being occupied by Kirk suddenly appearances it made her notice that now they were best friends too.


	5. Warnings

Selece knew that if the Enterprise's doors were old fashioned, like those wood doors that you see in museums around Earth, Nyota Uhura would be slamming one right now. And that wouldn't be good. She designed that door, well at least she programmed the security code for it and the same door was inside her domain, the Enterprise's security room, and in her place nobody break things without paying for it.

"How can you cope?" Was the first thing that the beautiful brunette said after entering the room like a storm about to come over the ship.

"Good day Lieutenant, how can I help you?" Selece asked in a very polite tone while turning her chair to face the other woman.

"Explaining to me how can you deal with him."

"With who?"

"The Captain." Of course, Jim. Who else would make Uhura screech like an angry cat?

"So... What Jim did this time?" She got the chair back to its original position in front of the control panel and continued with her work, ignoring the fuming communications officer behind her.

"Sexual harassment means anything to him?" Nyota hissed with her dark eyes glowing with rage.

"I think he doesn't know these words."

"So, how do you deal with him?" Uhura asked again while supporting herself against the Security's room control panel.

"Well... I don't know." Selece shrugged. She didn't have a secret to deal with Jim Kirk, she just acted like her usual self when he was being a insufferable prat.

"What? How come? I mean, in all this year that we're working here I never saw him making a sex joke about you, while with the others... And it's just disgusting that half of the women in this ship worships him like he is some kind of a pop idol and the other half respects him too much because he is the Captain. But you, you are the only girl that calls Jim Kirk a pigheaded bastard in the middle of the mess hall and isn't court-martialed for this."

"Well... He did these jokes when we met in the Academy, before he found out that I could punch his face without breaking a nail."

"So he's scared of you."

"No, he respects me and knows that he'll never have a chance with me."

"Same for me, except for the part that he still doesn't know that he'll never have a chance with me."

"Why not? Didn't you break up with Spock? And I know that sometimes Jim is annoying..." Nyota gave her a look like she was asking: 'only sometimes?'. "Okay, most of the times, but he is smart, handsome, a little arrogant, and when his mouth is shut he can be a very pleasant guy."

"If he has so many qualities, why don't you date him?"

"Because I also know his flaws. And because it would be... ewww." Selece made a disgusted face. Just to think about her dating Jim Kirk give her chills. It wasn't right, simple like that, like a nature law.

"Right... And how did you know that Spock and I were dating?"

"Well, Jim is my best friend, a friend who saw Spock and you sucking each other tonsils in the transport room during the Narada incident."

"And how he knows that we're not dating anymore?"

"Maybe because you're not exploring Spock's tonsils anymore?"

"Or maybe is because he spend all his time in the bridge looking to his First Officer like a puppy in love."

"So... Are you mad because of Jim's jokes or because he wants your ex?"

"I'm mad because Kirk's jokes makes me doubt if he is serious about my ex."

"You're a very possessive ex-girlfriend, did you know that?"

"Listen" Uhura got up from the panel and turned Selece's chair to look at the other woman in the eyes. "Just because Spock and I aren't romantically involved anymore it doesn't mean that I don't care about him. He is still my friend. I respect the Captain even with his stupids jokes about my uniform, my legs, my beauty and on, but if he hurts Spock's feelings..."

"Spock feels? Now I'm shocked."

"I'm not kidding!" Uhura shook her chair, almost spiting her indignation on Selece's face. "Spock has feelings and I'm not letting Kirk hurt them, even if he is my Captain."

"When did Jim hurt..."

"Let me remind you about the Narada incident when Kirk insulted Spock to take the captaincy."

"Well, he said he was sorry and Spock forgave him."

"And what will stop him the next time?" Uhura accused and Selece got up, glaring down at Nyota with fire in her gray eyes and closing her fingers in a fist.

"Now let me tell you something. Jim is my friend, my best friend, like the little brother I never wanted to have, and I'm giving you and your leprechaun ex-boyfriend the same warning: if he hurts Jim I'll make a huge damage on that pretty Vulcan face, one that not even his father will be capable to recognize him. Are we clear?" Uhura took a step back from Selece, glaring with the same intensity at her.

"Yeah, we're clear." Nyota turned around and left the security room like the fire of hell was chasing her. And again Selece was thankful for the Enterprise's door being automatic or the same would be slammed right now.


	6. Bar Brawl

"Hey..." Jim smiled a lopsided smile to Selece before somebody grab him by his jacket and throw him over a table, breaking some glass during the process. The girl rolled her eyes and sighed, turning around and ignoring the fight while she called the barman for another drink.

"Won't you help him?" The barman asked while he put a tequila shot in front of her.

"Should I?" Selece shrugged and took a gulp from her drink.

"Well... Your boyfriend is being beaten by six guys. It's not a fair fight."

"That idiot is not my boyfriend." Actually, Jim was the reason why she didn't had a boyfriend that night. Better yet, a date to screw her that night. What, just because she was a woman it doesn't mean that she hadn't some basic needs. Sex was one of those. And Kirk managed to ruin a good night fuck with a pretty brunette with intense green eyes that was flirting with her before the blond shows up and blown up everything.

Really, Jim knew how to play the jealousy best friend and with the same intensity that she hated his affairs he hated hers. Maybe was because of that that they were friends, their awful taste for partners were the same.

"A little help here!" Jim's voice made her turn her head to see him being throw over a speaker, breaking the thing in half.

"Why?" She asked with disinterested and took another gulp from her drink.

"Because I'm being punched and this hurt..." He was interrupted by a fist on his nose that made him see stars in front of his eyes.

"It's not a good enough reason." She said, turning around and calling the barman again for another shot.

"Do you want me" A punch in his guts made Jim lost his breath. "to beg?" He wheezed.

"Well... I would like to see that." Again he fell over the bar and looked at her with big puppy eyes. The thing would have worked if it wasn't for the purple swelled left eye.

"Please... I beg you." Kirk was pulled again by a very big guy with very big muscles and a mean expression on his ugly face and with another punch the right eye made company for the left with that purple thing.

"I don't know. I could help you but this could hurt your man's pride and I don't wanna hear from you later how your fame decreased because all the Academy heard that you were rescued by a girl in a bar fight."

"If you don't step in right now there won't be much of me to have a pride!" Kirk screamed before a kick make him double and gasp for air. Shit, the thing was getting worse and he knew that the bullies were winning the fight. All his aching body was telling him that.

"Nah... I still don't know. I mean, why should I help you when you ruined a perfect night for me? I should let you suffer because you deserve it for being a bad friend." She raised her arm, circling it around her head with the cup of tequila still in her hand. "Another one please." Asked to the bartender.

"How about that" Kirk said when a tug made him stumble to the bar. "you'll have to explain to Bones why my body is all broke when you could have stopped that." And again he was pulled by one of the drunks and blocked a punch, giving one in return.

"That would be tough." Selece pondered for a minute or two. "But I can live with his grumble."

"I hate you!" Came the shout in Kirk's voice.

"The feeling is mutual." She shouted back.

"Maybe you should intervene before they break all the place." The bartender said to her but without much conviction. Probably he was asking himself at that exactly moment how a skinny girl like her could help a man in that uneven fight.

"Ugh... I think I broke something." Kirk groaned when he was throw again over the bar.

"Or lost your mind." Selece smiled to him and made a face when she saw the blood coming from his nose and mouth. "You look like a shit."

"Thank you. And you're still pretty as ever, sitting there and watching me being beaten."

"Hey, Blondie, stop to ask your girlfriend's help and fight with us like a man." One of the bullies put a hand on Jim's shoulder and smirked to him. His face wasn't better than Kirk, with blood and bruises all over it, but different from Jim he wasn't stumbling or babbling because his brain was so shook that it couldn't work right anymore.

"I'm not her boyfriend." Jim babbled and the brunette guy with pretty green eyes that he insulted earlier saying that he was too low level for someone like Selece blinked at him.

"If you're not her boyfriend why the hell did you interrupt us?"

"Because I'm her friend and I still think you're an idiot and I know you pal. Cadet Simmons has a fame worse than mine and I won't let a friend of mine step so low for an one night stand."

"I can't believe it!" Selece sighed. "You ruined my night because Simmons is a womanizer and you don't want me to be involved with a guy like him?" Kirk smiled an innocent smile to her.

"I need to protect your virtue."

"You're impossible." Selece rolled her eyes and paid for her drinks, getting out of the booth and grabbing Jim's hand. "Let's get out of here." And started to dragging him out of the bar.

"Wait!" One of the bullies screamed. "We didn't finish with him."

"Yes, you did." She said back and kept moving until a hand on her shoulder stopped her.

"I said we didn't pretty doll." The guy smirked and Selece let out a long breath and before the big man could take Kirk from her hand, she made a fist and pushed it in the guy's face. That was enough to make him fall unconscious on the floor. His friends came to aid him but with two more punches and two more kicks they made company to him on the floor. The sixth bully even thought to try something, but when he saw his mates knock out he gave up pretty fast.

"I hate when they call me 'pretty doll'. It's a ridiculous pet name." She turned to Kirk, passing one of his arms over her shoulders and dragging him out of the bar and in the cold night air, taking the street route back to the Academy. "It' so twenty century. So archaic."

"Wow, you were amazing in there. And if you could end everything so fast, why didn't you?"

"And lose the chance to see you suffer? Never."

"You're a mean best friend."

"Wrong. I'm a very good best friend. I saved your ass, I'm dragging you back to the dorms and I gave up of my night to help you. You'll see the mean best friend when you meet McCoy with this pretty face of yours."

"I know you don't like pet names, but for that stunt you put in there I think I'll start to call you 'The Warrior Goodness'."

"And I think you have a concussion for being beaten so much on the head." She joked and James laughed, what made his chest hurt. "You really are something James T. Kirk."

"I know."

"Ah... And thanks."

"For what?"

"That guy was being a totally jerk. Two more minutes and I would have punched him myself."

"You're welcome. And about what I said earlier... I don't hate you." Selece smiled when she heard the confession.

"Yeah... The feeling is mutual."


	7. Enlightenment

"I swear Commander, if you die on me I'll kill you myself." Selece grumbled while she ripped her red uniform shirt in strips and used it to dress Spock's wound.

"Lieutenant, I'm inclined to say that if my body ceases all its functions it would be impossible for you to repeat the process after my system has shut it down."

"Well, you can't kill me for trying."

"Again Lieutenant, if I'm already dead it would be impossible for my person to inflict any damage on you. The lack of activity from my main organs would imply that."

"Well, for someone who's bleeding like a gutted pig through his chest your mouth sure is working perfectly fine." She tied the strips around his torso with more strength than necessary and Spock winced a little.

"Lieutenant, please refrain yourself to use so much strength. I believe that you want to stop the flood of blood, not to cut my blood circulation all at once."

''A joke Commander? I think you already lost too much blood, because now you have a sense of humor and for me this is the result of lack of oxygen in your brain."

"All my brain's functions are normal so I don't see what is your point."

"If you can't understand my jab, your brain isn't functioning so well as you think."

"I sense some distress from your part Lieutenant, is there a reason for such hostility coming from you?"

"Reason? Well... Do you want a list or a compacted version?"

"Enlighten me."

"This was supposed to be a safe exploratory mission in an unknown planet, but then out of nowhere came this bunch of big animals with big teeth and a very angry humor and attacked us. And now I'm trapped with you in the middle of woods, under a freezing rain with a communicator that isn't working because of the static caused by the lightnings, and I don't know where the Captain is because our group had to go on different ways to ensure our safety. Is this explanation enough for you... sir?"

"I suppose your reasoning has logic."

"You suppose?"

"But I'm assured that the Enterprise's crew must be recalibrating the sensors to pass through the storm at this moment and if my calculations are correct there will be a 47.9 percent of chance that this storm will cease in the next 20.5 minutes."

"Great. So in the next twenty minutes I'm trapped with you bleeding all over me in this forest. Joy!"

"You don't look joyful in my point of view, Lieutenant. I believe that irritable would be a better description for your emotional state right now."

"Sarcasm, Commander, have you ever heard of it?"

"I believe that the Captain commented about this word with me in one occasion or another."

"Yeah... And I believe you still have a lot to learn about words, meanings and all the shit in the middle of it."

"Please, enlighten me again."

"Can I ask you a personal question?"

"I believe..."

"I didn't make my question yet. Rhetorical questions, have you heard of it too?"

"Please, go on."

"What is your relationship with the Captain?"

"I believe that I didn't grasp the concept of your inquiring."

"Do you like Jim?"

"Define 'like' Lieutenant."

"Are you serious?"

"I do not do jokes."

"Well... I heard that you two spend some time together playing chess, also you lunch together and the bridge crew told us that your professional relationship improved a lot in the last year. You two argue less about things."

"A Captain and his First Officer must have a close interaction to balance the ship's function. When the commanding officers show to the crew that they can work without animosities coming between them the crew feel safe knowing that they are under the leadership of capable beings."

"Yeah... Thanks for quote the '101 ways to be a better leader from the Starfleet captaincy guide'. But what I want to know is what is your emotional involvement to the Captain." Silence came after the question and she could almost see the cogs working inside Spock's brain through his eyes. This or he finally collapsed, because talk about emotions to a Vulcan can give them a stroke. And damn she was spending too much time with McCoy, his pleasurable way was rubbing on her.

"He is..." Did Spock just stutter? Damn, the world was ending. And here she thought that the Apocalypse was coming when Jim told her that he was in love with the Commander. "my friend."

"Friend?" Unbelievable. For someone with so accurate senses, the guy was blind like a bat.

"It's the correct definition, isn't it? When you spend some of your free time in pleasurable companionship with a person capable to maintain a high intelligent level of conversation, what induce you to seek for other opportunities to repeat the experience, this is friendship. So I believe that the Captain is in this category."

"Of course he is." Selece said slowly, like she was talking to a dumb child.

"Am I wrong at some point Lieutenant? Or your definition of friendship differ from mine."

"No, it's basically this. Except that I only seek friendship from Jim's part."

"I can't see your point."

"You really lost too much blood." Spock only blinked in her direction.

"Again there's no relation between the quantity of blood lost for my body with my brain's activities." After he said that both became silent and Selece looked beyond the treetops, seeing that the rain was finally stopping. Three minutes after this her communicator flared to life and a familiar voice called her.

"Kirk to Selece. Are you listening Lieutenant?"

"Jim!" She grabbed the comm. "Where are you? Are you alright?" On the other end of the line Kirk almost smiled when he heard the concern in his friend's voice.

"Stay still Lieutenant, we're about to lock your signal." With that said, two minutes later she saw the world fade around her and the Enterprise's transport room came to view. The medical team rushed to Spock's side and two nurses helped him to get up, taking him seconds later to the medical bay. Jim's worried gaze followed them until they disappeared through the door and his attention went back to Selece.

"That went well." Jim said and Selece raised both her eyebrows.

"If you mean that you're in one piece, yes, it went well." She step out of the platform and stopped in front of the Captain, looking into his clear eyes. "What I don't understand is why you're still here."

"What?" He blinked.

"I'm fine, no scratch or anything, Spock on the other side..."

"Yeah... I saw..."

"It's okay, you can run to him like a worried wife." She smiled when Jim made a face because of her joke. "Well?" Selece raised both her eyebrows again and Kirk let out a long breath.

"I'm going, I'm going." And he left the room faster than a Chizetan warrior in their full run capacity.

"I'm tellin' u if these two don't kiss any sooner the crew is gonna blow up with expectation." Scotty said from his place in front of the control panel.

"It's just... I knew Spock was oblivious, but Jim is like a damn opened book." Selece grumbled. All the Enterprise was sick and tired to watch their Captain and his First Officer dancing around each other and after this afternoon enlightenment the girl knew that this damn waltz would take forever to end.

"Yeah... It's a shock. And I thought that Vulcans liked to read." Scotty commented and Selece blinked, letting out a laugh and taping the Scottish shoulder, exiting the transport room to the sickbay. If she knew Jim, he was at that moment pestering McCoy about Spock's condition. And if she knew the doctor, he was one step closer to hypo Kirk with something dangerous and permanent.


	8. Family

The first thing that Jim became aware of was the headache from hell he was suffering. The second was that he had a feeling in his throat like he had swallowed a cotton ball. The third thing was a beeping noise coming from beside him and then very slowly his fuzzy brain started to work again until the point that two distinguishes voices reached his ears.

"It was your job to ensure his safety!" The gruff voice reminded him of his best friend Bones.

"I would do that if the idiot hadn't jumped in front of a shot meant to Ensign Edwards!" A lighter voice said in an angry tone, a tone that he recognized as belonging to Selece.

"If you had trained that brainless boy better that wouldn't have happened!"

"I train all my subordinates to outstanding levels. How dare you to criticize my work?"

"And you marvelous work lend Jim into the sickbay... Again!"

"Jim can hurt himself by only sitting on his chair doing nothing in the bridge. And I did the best that I could."

"The best, it seems, wasn't enough. Hate to break this for you Miss Genetic Enhanced Freak, but your work sucks."

"What?" Came the screech that made Kirk's head hurt more. "I loathe you!" The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed in the sickbay and Jim opened his eyes only to see Bones rubbing his arm with a furious expression on his face.

"How very mature." Leonard rolled his eyes.

"Are you two getting a divorce?" Jim slurred and two pairs of eyes fell on him.

"Jim!" Selece let out a relieved sigh to see her friend awake and McCoy got a tricoder to scan the Captain's body.

"Damn kid, I'm going gray because of you."

"Love you too Bones. So... Are you gonna divorce?" Selece and Leonard looked at each other with suspicious in their eyes.

"Is he delirious?" She asked the doctor who raised both his eyebrows.

"Well... He's not feverish, so I don't know."

"Jim, sweetie," Selece combed her fingers on soft blond hair. "what are you talking about?" Jim tried to laugh at the way the Chizetan was acting around him, but laughing made his body hurts.

It's just that every time he hurt himself badly she would impersonate the 'very worried mother character' and treat him like a child. And damn he would shoot himself before admitting that he like it, a lot. He had mommy issues, so what? Every guy has his problems, even a Starfleet Captain. Especially a Starfleet Captain.

"You two were fighting like an old married couple... I'm too young to have divorced parents and I don't wanna decide with who I'll spend my weekends and holidays."

"Probably with your father. You know that the guardianship always goes to the mother." She decided to amuse him and Jim smiled while Bones snorted behind Selece.

"You spoil him too much." Leonard rolled his eyes again.

"Well... He is our baby, we have to take care of him." Selece joked, still caressing Jim's hair.

"Dad is jealous because you love me more than him." Jim gave Bones a lopsided smile and the doctor only grunted.

"I'll always love you more." Selece kissed him on the forehead and Jim's smile became bigger. Seconds later baby blue eyes started to blink repeatedly.

"The drug is kicking in again." Leonard alerted her and after that Jim was unconscious again over the bed. "Well... It seems that he's better."

"Yeah, it seems."

"Sorry about that." The doctor murmured.

"Come again?"

"You heard what I said."

"Yeah, and I still don't believe it."

"Okay, let's face it. You worry about him, I worry about him and this kid will be the death of us, so I think that fighting every time he's hurt will lead us to nowhere."

"You were the one who started all the yelling."

"You yelled back."

"Now who's the one being immature?"

"I believe that both are acting under their real intellectual capacity or age. And must I remind you that raised voices are not welcomed in this place?" Spock's voice broke the mutual glare that Leonard and Selece were sharing and brought their attention to the Commander.

"Well, like a clock Spock. I'm impressed." Selece suppressed a giggle after listening what Leonard said.

In the last twenty hours since Jim was shot, went through surgery and was unconscious, Spock had contact the sickbay at least five times asking for reports about the Captain's condition and on the sixth time that he called, McCoy finally snapped and said for him to stop bothering, what made the Vulcan apologize and tell that by 2000 hours he would stop by for a visit.

"As you see, Jim is in la-la land, but he woke up for a few minutes before so I believe that soon he'll be up and back to pester us."

"I see." Was Spock only response before he positioned himself beside the Captain's bed like a watching gargoyle.

"Now if you don't mind, I have some things to discuss with my wife." McCoy closed his fingers around Selece wrist, ignoring the raised eyebrow that Spock threw on their direction, and pulled her into his office.

"Wow, I should report you for domestic violence." Selece rubbed her wrist after McCoy let her go.

"How dramatic. You didn't even feel it, so don't try to fool me."

"So..." She said after a long pause between them. "Whiskey or Scotch?"

"After what we went trough, I think both are in order." Selece agreed with her head and pulled a chair while Leonard went to his cabinet and grabbed the two bottles along with a pair of cups. He poured some Scotch to Selece and Whiskey for him and sat at his working table. "For one more day in this damn ship under Jim's crazies stunts." He raised his glass and clinked it with hers.

"Cheers my good doctor. Cheers."


	9. Unknown Fiancé

"YOU!" Selece stopped on her track and looked around her searching for the one who was being shout at by the exotic girl with purple skin and orange hair. When she saw that the purple girl actually was coming in her direction with a furious expression, the Chizetan frowned and bit her lower lip. "It's you!" The strange woman stopped in front of Selece and raised a finger in the brunette's face.

"Excuse me?"

"You are her, aren't you?"

"I don't know. Am I?"

"Don't play dumb with me. It's because of you that he broke up with me." The purple girl also had big golden eyes and a pair of antennas that was coming out from under her fringe.

"Who are we talking about?" Selece frowned, with her eyebrows almost becoming one thing on her forehead.

"Jim!" There were unshed tears in the strange girl's eyes.

"Jim? As in Jim Kirk?" Please say no, was Selece's thought.

"Yes!" He was so dead. "Jim told me that he was breaking up with me because he was betrothed to another girl." Dead and buried. If what the girl was saying made any sense Jim lied to her telling that he was engaged... to Selece. That boy really need to stop to use her as an excuse to finish his short relationships.

"What exactly did he tell you?" Nobody could be so idiot to believe in this lame excuse.

"That he had a beautiful fiancé that his parents arranged for him when he was a child..."

"And?"

"Jim said that he would end everything with her to stay with me" This girl really was stupid. "but then she freaked out and threatened to kill herself or Jim if he left her." Oh, there will be a murder, the purple woman could be sure of that. Jim Kirk's murder. Because after Selece finish with him there'll be nothing left for his fan girls.

"And you believed him."

"Of course I believed him. Jim never lied to me before." Girl you would be surprised, was Selece's thoughts. "Now we can't have our happily ever after because of her... You, actually." Selece didn't know whether to laugh at the girl or feel sorry for her. "So I came here to tell you" and then she put her finger again in the Chizetan's face. "to let Jim go."

"How Biblical." She couldn't help the joke. "And you are aware that arranged marriage was a habit in the seventeen century and that it doesn't happen anymore because is against the living and rational beings rights. Right?" Golden eyes blinked stupidly at her and Selece rolled her eyes. "In others words: Kirk lied to you honey."

"You're not his madly in love fiancé?"

"Let me make my point straight to your... fine mind." Sarcasm, she was good with it and doubted that the girl would even understand it. "If Kirk was the last man in the whole Universe and the survival of the advanced species depended on us... I would let the species die before think about to have sex with him." The purple girl blinked again and Selece was starting to think that that was the way the girl processed things.

"So... You're not in love with him."

"I barely tolerate him..." Another blink. Really, that was getting on Selece's nerves. "Honey, do you want me to draw a graphic for you with a detailed explanation? I can even use crayons and colored pencils." Why Kirk always goes after the stupid one? And now she was starting to comprehend why Jim broke up with the girl. Really, a door would have been more interesting to date.

"You don't need it. I think I understand."

"You do?"

"Yeah... The termination" Wow, big word, very impressive. "of your relationship with Jim was rough and he broke up with me before he could break up with you." How she came to that conclusion? "So, now that you hate him I have a chance." No way! Jim could be an arrogant bastard, but he still was a bastard with a high IQ. Now was Selece turn to blink stupidly and then an evil plan came to her mind.

"Yes... I hate him. That son of a bitch broke my heart. So ungrateful."

"I'm sorry. It's just that he fell in love for another person..." The purple alien tried to console her but the only thing Selece wanted was to laugh until she lost her breath. Jim only loved himself.

"I know... And I know that I don't have a chance so I hope that you two can be very happy." The girl smiled to her and Selece gave her a pained smile before she turned around and returned to her track. Seconds later the Chizetan's smile became malicious and music played to her ears when at night a frantic Jim called her.

"What the hell did you say to Mildred?" Oh, that was the purple girl's name? "Now she is thinking that I love her and that we'll marry and have a lot of purple kids. And I don't even like purple. Selece! Please, help me!"

"Why honey? You broke the engagement and my heart altogether, so why should I help you?"

"That is not funny!"

"I'm laughing."

"But I'm not! That girl is stupid..."

"Really? I would never had guessed if you hadn't told me." Selece stared uninterested at her nails.

"And self-centered, and thinks that the world should always work on her favor..."

"You found your soul mate. She's you without the high IQ."

"Argh! I hate you!"

"I love you too, but you know that we wouldn't have worked together. That's why we called of the marriage. Now if you don't mind, I have a date, he's nothing like you but everything ended so soon..." She moved to terminate the call.

"Wait, don't hang up!"

"Bye Jim." And pushed the button. Tomorrow he would pester her until she wants to pull her hair out, but for now she would enjoy her small victory over the famous James T. Kirk.


	10. First Kiss

"I swear, I saw them kissing." Everyone around the table stared at Sulu like he had grown another head.

"Define kissin'." Scott lowered the fork and raised both of his eyebrows.

"What?" Sulu asked with a perplexed face.

"Well buddy, you just said that you saw them kissin'... in the bridge. But we're talkin' 'bout Spock and the Captain here." Scott shrugged and everyone agreed with him. "Maybe you should explain what exactly did you see." Sulu blushed a nice shade of red while everybody at that table looked at him.

"Well... They were touching hands." Said the pilot, flushing a little more. All the officers around him blinked while Scott frowned.

"Touchin' hands." Said the Scottish with an unbelievable tone. "Well... In my conception, touchin' hands means nothing." Everybody agreed with the engineer and Sulu got a little more pink until a snort coming from Uhura followed by a roll of her eyes got everyone attention.

"In Vulcan's culture, touching hands is the same as a kiss, petting is like a foreplay and so on. But I'm sure that whatever Sulu saw was an accident."

"One time makes an accident." Sulu defended himself. "Three times, for me, is purposeful."

"Mayve zey didn't know what zey were doin'." Checov added his two cents.

"I'm sure Spock knew what he was doing." Uhura rolled her eyes once more. "Or did you all forget how he is sensitive about touch?"

"Mayve ze Keptin didn't know what he was doin'."

"But Spock knew and he would have told Kirk about that or at least asked him to stop." Sulu commented and everyone around the table made a positive sign with their head.

"Okay, it seems we're goin' nowhere with this." Scott pushed his plate away from him and crossed his arms over the table. "Maybe we should ask someone close to the Captain if they know somethin'."

"And you're thinking about who? Dr. McCoy?" Uhura arched both her eyebrows. "I don't think he knows something, or we would have heard the screams from the bridge." Everybody laughed, thinking about the scene with the Captain telling his best friend about Spock and him and the good doctor yelling at Jim about craziness and threatening him with hypos and a strait jacket.

"No." Scott glanced in the replicators' direction where a brunette with short hair and using the security uniform was.

"She would never open her mouth. That girl is better to keep a secret than a high security safe." Uhura smirked when she followed Scott's glance and saw Selece finishing to order her lunch to the replicator.

"She'll talk to me." Scott winked to Nyota and got up from his chair, going to Selece and stopping beside her. "So... How are you?" Gray eyes raised to look at the Scottish and dark slim eyebrows arched.

"Fine."

"Good." Silence came after his answer and meanwhile Selece finished to order her food and grab it, starting to look for a available table. Scott followed her like a fateful dog and sat beside her while she watched his acts with a distrustful look.

"Really, Scott, what do you want?"

"What make you think that I want somethin'?"

"You're following me like a lost puppy, you want something." Selece gave her sandwich a bite. "If this is about the override code that I put in the security room so you would stop going there with your dates..." She glared at him. For five times in the last year she caught Scott lip locked with some beautiful Ensign in the security room because, according to him, it's very far away from curious eyes. Obviously it would be far away from others eyes, it was the security room, the place itself was the Enterprise's eyes and ears. Everything that happened in the ship passed by there. The only problem was that Scott forgot that the room also had eyes and ears and Selece wasn't happy to found out about his night encounters in there.

"I thought you've got over that." He smiled a lopsided smile to Selece and her glare intensified.

"You can't get over about someone using your work space as a love hotel."

"Okay, I said sorry before and I'm sayin' again. Happy?"

"No." She kept looking at him with distrustful in her eyes and Scott gave her a nervous grin before he took a deep breath and opened his mouth to ask what he really wanted.

"Are the Captain and Mr. Spock together?" Selece blinked repeatedly and frowned.

"Together? Well, they work together..."

"No... Together as a couple." She blinked again and looked around the mess hall, searching for the origin of that conversation. The Captain and his First Officer weren't present at the moment, but she saw a table where Uhura, Sulu, Checov and company were looking to them with expectation in their faces.

"Why are you asking this?" She turned her attention back to Scott.

"Sulu saw them kissin' in the bridge." Selece's eyebrows raised so much that almost lost itself under her fringe.

"Lip lock with tongue kissing?" That was hard to believe. Never in a billion of years Spock would allow the Captain to make such a public display of affection. The Vulcan would probably nerve pinch Kirk again before anything happens, with them being or not lovers.

"No... Vulcan kisses according to Nyota." Vulcan kisses, the kind that only involve hands. That was hard to believe too.

"Maybe it was an accident?"

"One time is an accident... Sulu said they touched three times."

"Kirk is stupid." Now was Scott turn to raise his eyebrows. Everybody in that ship had a certain degree of respect for the Captain, even Uhura who started her relationship with Kirk with the wrong foot, but Selece and McCoy were the only one that insulted Jim in public and weren't punished for that. Maybe because they really didn't mean it and half of the time both were being driven crazy by worry over the lad. "Maybe he thought it was nothing to touch Spock, thought that was only a friendship gesture and Mr. Spock is too polite to tell the Captain off." At least it was what she believed, or hoped that that was the explanation for what happened.

"So you don't know anythin'."

"Even if I knew something, do you think I would be telling you bunch of gossipers? Really Scott." Scott gave her a large innocent smile that wasn't convincing at all and got up from the table, giving her a mock salute while she rolled her eyes and watched him go back to his friends. Really, if Jim finally got in Spock pants she would be the first to know by only looking at the Captain. So nothing happened... until that night.

It was the Gamma shift and she was the only one left in the security room because, really, in the middle of the night with only a skeleton crew working nothing big was suppose to happen. This was what she thought until the camera from one of the turbo lifts caught a curious scene. Spock and the Captain had just entered the lift and Jim was smiling that smile that always said he was up to something. The Vulcan was more rigid than a board and Selece could swear she saw a nervous tick under his left eye. Kirk smile became a smirk and then the impossible happened: he touched Spock.

It was something minimal, almost imperceptible if wasn't for the camera's high quality of image. Jim was caressing Spock palm with the tips of his fingers and that made the First Officer freeze on the spot. Selece frowned, giving a zoom on the duo and saw that Spock eyes seemed to darken only with the touch. Jim took a step closer to his first in command, with the smirk still on place, and intensified the caressing. Something akin to a tremor ran over Spock's body and suddenly he took his hand from Jim's and pressed the emergency button in the turbo lift.

There was a stop in the lift and seconds after that Spock turned to Kirk and grabbed the front of the Captain's shirt. Selece moved on her chair, thinking that the worst was about to happen and Kirk would be nerve pinched and marooned to a star to never come back when Spock pushed him against the turbo lift wall. She was about to call others security guards to go with her to save their Captain from an enraged First Officer when the unthinkable happened: Spock kissed Jim.

And no, it wasn't a Vulcan kiss. It was a very Terran kiss with lots of lips, tongues and hands going everywhere. Selece's eyes went large with what it was seeing and she blinked a lot of times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating. But you can't be delirious when you see a Vulcan molesting a human to the point where this same human knees turn into jelly. The hands were still everywhere and when Spock's long fingers found a way under Kirk's shirt Selece thought that was the time to put a stop on that.

With a big smirk she grabbed her communicator and dialed the Commander's frequency and saw through the camera that both had stopped when Spock's comm started to glow. Jim said something to the half-Vulcan, probably telling him to ignore the call, and pulled him for another kiss. Selece didn't give up, only called again and was in the fourth time that Spock finally answered and by his tone he wasn't so happy about the interruption like Jim's face showed on the screen.

"Yes Lieutenant?"

"Commander." She said very sweetly. "Must I remind you that this ship has eyes and ears?" Kirk confused expression showed through the camera and Spock raised one eyebrow, probably he didn't understand her too.

"Lieutenant, I believe that it doesn't matter how many times the Captain and Mr. Scott like to refer to this ship as a lady, a real living person, I don't think that this is sufficiently to grow any kind of sensitivity organs in it." Jim laughed and Selece rolled her eyes.

"Of course not Mr. Spock. But as a Senior Security Officer is my duty to tell you that this was a figure of speech and also that a turbo lift has cameras too." She heard Jim curse through the comm. "So if you want to molest the Captain be my guest, but I would like for you to do this in your private quarters. Also, you're holding a essential way of transportation in the ship because you can't control your hormones. So if you please could press that button again..." She really gained the day when she saw Jim blush beautifully and a tinge of green paint the tips of Spock's ears.

"Of course Lieutenant." The half-Vulcan pressed the emergency button and the turbo lift started to move again.

"Thank you for your time boys. Have fun and be safe!" Kirk cursed again, flushing a little bit more and the green on Spock's ears went to his cheeks. Selece smirked more and cut the call, watching when seconds later the lift's door opened and both got out of it faster than they could. Through the cameras in the corridor she saw them going into the Captain's room and smiled a little more. Well, usually nothing fun happens in the Gamma shift, but with Jim as Captain there was always a first time.

Her smile became mischievous when she rewound the footage and edited only the part about the kiss. With the smile still on her face she attached the scene in her e-mail and send it to McCoy personal mail, getting back to work in that boring night. However, ten minutes later a familiar scream that came through the comm made her laugh.

"DAMNIT SELECE!"


	11. Birthdays

"Jim?" Selece called, pressing the door's bell for the fourth time. The buzzing sound echoed along the corridor but nobody answered the door. "Jim Kirk, I know you're in there!" She buzzed again and waited, supporting the small box that she was carrying against her hip. With a sigh, Selece decided to forget her manners and entered an override code in the panel beside the door. The fact that she was a trainee in Security had its advantages, like to be capable to break in every dorm in the Academy. After all, you can't trust cadets this much, they are always getting themselves in a trouble of some kind that request security to do something drastic like what she was doing right now.

The door opened with a hiss, giving her access to a darkened room. There was only a bedside lamp on and it was this light that was pouring over a familiar form shrunk in a corner with a half empty bottle of whiskey beside the person what made Selece let out a long breath.

"Jim." She whispered, closing the door behind her and going to Kirk, lowering herself in front of him and putting the box next to her feet. "Jimmy?" Selece called his name slowly and baby blue eyes tinged with red raised to look at her. There was also a blush on his nose and cheeks and the girl put her hand on his forehead to check for a fever, coming back with nothing. Apparently the flush was because the alcohol and the trail of dried tears on his face.

"What are you doing here?" Jim hiccuped.

"Can't a friend come for a visit anymore?" She smiled to him but his only answer to that was to catch the bottle of whiskey and take a long gulp from it.

"Bones sent you, didn't he?" He glared and took another gulp. "Like a damn babysitter. Poor little Jimmy, can't let him alone to drown his sorrows." Selece didn't comment about this. Kirk was right, McCoy called her telling he was worried about Jim's state of mind because of the day and that he couldn't stay with him because he was in the night shift in the Starfleet's hospital. So she decided to do the doctor's job and be the mother hen for that night in McCoy's place.

"What if he did?" His glared intensified and Jim moved his arm like he was about to chuck the bottle on her direction but changed his mind in the middle of it.

"I don't need anyone's pity! I'm a big boy who can take care of himself!" Jim screamed but Selece didn't move a muscle with his suddenly reaction. Alcohol usually made the blond irrational to the point where he would do something stupid like start a fight or sleep with a stranger. In this case, in this particularly day, he would yell at his best friends. But that was okay, because Selece could take Jim's angry or violent side while McCoy took care of his physiologic side.

"Since when I do pity?" The Chizetan raised an eyebrow and sat with her legs crossed in front of Kirk. Blue eyes glared at her and another gulp of whiskey followed that look. "But apparently you do." She said while looking to the almost empty bottle.

"Well, I have the right to because I'm screwed like that and my life is a shit." He snorted and looked away from her when the brunette only stared at him with a mysterious glint in her eyes.

"So... Because your life is a shit you think that you can forget everything and drink until oblivion. How poetic, or pathetic."

"Well, not everybody can be perfect like you." Jim said with disdain. In his bad days he usually used that tirade when he wanted do insult her and push Selece away. It always seemed to him that because she was a perfect being made by science, everything in her life was perfect as well.

"Genetically speaking, yes. Now about the rest... I don't know." She shrugged and Jim blinked at her, trying to disperse the fuzzy feeling that the drink was giving to his brain.

"What are you talking about?" The blond frowned when was Selece's turn to look away from him.

"I was made to be a warrior, and only this. Technically I shouldn't be here, be your friend, but like my creator says: I am a defective project."

"What?" He blinked again and Selece saw that the blue eyes seemed a little less clouded and more sober.

"We're made in labs, with chosen DNA and selected mothers. We're trained since we were babies and we can't attach ourselves to no one. But my creator broke those rules when he attached himself to me and taught me things like emotion, family and friendship. Why do you think I'm here on Earth training to be a Starfleet officer?"

"Don't know? Because you would be useful?"

"Why? If it's because my strength, a Temissan is stronger than me. If it's about intelligence, a Vulcan is better than me and about resistance, a Cartasian is a match to me."

"But you are all these things in one person."

"True, but I shouldn't feel and because of that my creator and I were banned from Chizeta because I wasn't useful for them."

"Bullshit! You're the best warrior that I ever seen." Selece smiled with the compliment.

"But I'm not good enough for my own people." Jim thought that this story had something more, but decided to not comment about this.

"So what? Are you going to do self pity now?"

"No. And that's what I'm trying to say to you. I'm not wanted by a whole planet, but it doesn't mean that I'll let myself be shaken by this. You, otherwise, is wanted..."

"By whom? My absent mother who doesn't give a shit for the son who reminds her too much of her beloved dead husband? By a brother who ran away from home and didn't care for what I feel? By my ex-girlfriends who only wanted me for my good look? Or by a step-father who took a huge pleasure to fuck my life?" Every word coming from his mouth was followed by rage and resentment, making company to the scowl on his pretty face.

"You're wanted by me." She said in a whisper and Kirk blinked for the third time, caught by surprise with this revelation.

"What? I thought you didn't fuck friends. Especially this friend." The girl rolled her eyes and had to stop herself to not slap him on the head.

"Everything to you is about sex? Don't answer that." Jim only gave her a boyish smile. "I want you as my best friend, as a little brother..."

"I'm older than you."

"So? Your mental age is younger than mine. So, you're my little brother."

"Right, until you get tired and leave like the others."

"I won't leave."

"What makes you so sure of this?"

"Because I'm here, right? Listening to you complaining about your life and making sure that you'll survive this day without irreparable damage."

"I'm already damaged."

"Maybe, but I like you even with all your flaws." Jim gave her a pained smile and took another swing from the bottle.

"Well, love is blind." He said bitterly.

"It's seems so." She raised her hand and put it on Jim's head, caressing his head like a mother comforting a child. Kirk promptly leaned into the touch and his grip on the bottle relaxed what make Selece use this moment to take the whiskey away from him. "Ah, I brought something for you." She put the bottle aside and grabbed the box instead, opening it and taking out a small cake. With a flouring gesture she lighted the only candle on it and extended the cake to Jim's direction. "Happy Birthday sweetie."

Baby blue eyes blinked repeatedly to ride itself of the tears and he laughed a little when the girl started to sing a very out of tune birthday song. One minute later she finished her awful singing and looked at Jim with expectation in her gray eyes.

"So? Make a wish." Kirk arched both his eyebrows and stared at the beautiful girl in front of him. Stared at the girl that chose to spend her night with a friend who was drowning his sorrows instead of be around the campus celebrating the anniversary of the day that George Kirk became a hero to Earth. The girl who when he blew out the candle, he wished to never, ever leave his side. "That's my baby." She joked and the smile that blossomed on Kirk's face was so radiant that Selece had to blink to not be blinded by it.

"Your baby? Again, I thought that you hadn't this kind of desire for me." He smirked.

"Don't be such a spoil sport. You know what I meant by 'baby'."

"I know." He whispered, giving her a gentle smile. "And I'm honored." Again he stared her in silence for several minutes, like he was searching for something.

"What?"

"Just thinking... Your people are wrong."

"Why?"

"You are perfect. At least for me, you are perfect." Selece smiled beatifically to him.

"Well... If James Tiberius Kirk is giving me praises, who I am to say no to that?" She joked after a minute.

"Damn right. Enjoy while you can."

"And you..." She trusted the cake to him. "Enjoy your cake." And Jim only thought while he tasted a piece of the chocolate cake was that was the best birthday he ever had.

 


	12. Evil Ex

"Is this seat taken?" Selece looked to her right only to see a smiling Captain Kirk pointing to the chair booth beside her.

"Is that how you pick up your dates? Because I have to tell that you're horrible in this department." She said, taking a sip from her champagne flute.

"I'll take that as a no." Kirk pulled the chair and sat on it, putting his own flute on the bar table. "You are beautiful this night." His blue eyes traveled over her body, praising the slim curves that were being embraced by a long strapless red dress.

"You're not bad yourself." She smiled, looking to the young blond in his official formal dress and gave a nod of approval to him. "Where is your significant half?" Her eyes went over around the ballroom searching for the familiar form that was Commander Spock and found him in one corner speaking with some Starfleet Admirals.

"Probably telling my superiors how he is amazed by my brilliant captaincy."

"Or how you are crazy and must be fired immediately."

"He wouldn't say that."

"Why? What make you so sure?"

"Because he loves me." Jim smiled a very large smile and Selece arched both her eyebrows in surprise.

"He said that he loves you already? You're together for how long? Three months? I know that it had a lot of unresolved sexual tension before that, but isn't too soon for the L word?"

"You have a marvelous way to boost somebody self-esteem."

"I try my best."

"He didn't say anything... yet."

"Probably he will never say it. Really, I can't imagine Spock saying these words without having a syncope."

"You're spending too much of your free time with Bones. You're starting to sound like him."

"God forbid this." She took another sip from her glass and Kirk did the same, both falling in silence for a couple of minutes while Jim looked around the ballroom to the people in it. There were a lot of Starfleet officers, as well civilians as their dates for that night. Spock was now talking with some Academy's instructors, probably from the science department, and Kirk saw that one of them had as date a pretty blond woman who seemed very familiar to the Captain.

"Oh shit!" Kirk said after a few minutes looking at the blond on the instructor's arm and finally put a name to her face.

"What? What is it? Did you see Spock kissing another guy?" Selece provoked and Jim glared at her.

"Not funny. And Spock would never do that."

"Yeah, because he is in looove." Selece singsonged, rolling her eyes, and Jim scowled.

"Could you please stop this shit?"

"Is this the kind of language of a Starfleet Captain?"

"Don't try to scold me. Your swearing vocabulary is worse than mine, and you have it in five different languages."

"Well... When a girl has to drag her best friend pretty behind out of a weekly bar intercalation, she learns some thing or another."

"You think that my ass is pretty?"

"You're a narcissist."

"Because I can."

"Whatever. So, what was the reason for the curse earlier?"

"Yeah, right! The blond one, with blue dress beside instructor Carmine." Selece turned on the booth and started searching for the one that Kirk mentioned, until she found said person inside the circle where was Spock with some others Academy's officers and instructors.

"What about her? Please, don't tell me. You had an affair with her and now is scare shitless that she will tell your beloved Vulcan about it."

"Why you always think the worst of me?"

"Just because. So?"

"Well, this time you are wrong. She's not my ex." And with that Jim pointed to the blond again that now had stepped out of the circle and was walking in McCoy's direction. And when the doctor saw the woman going to him his eyes almost felt out from his sockets and he gulped his drink in one go.

"What is with that face? It's like he saw the devil himself."

"Well, it might be. From what I heard from Bones, Jocelyn can be tougher than Uhura." Selece laughed hard when she heard this. Really, the grumpy and annoying doctor has a weak spot? What a wonderful blackmail material.

"She doesn't look so bad from here. McCoy, on the other hand, seems like he wants to run screaming for his life."

"It looks like. I'm not an expertise in body language, but Bones doesn't seem too happy to see his ex in a Starfleet's gala. For him the Starfleet is the only place where he can be himself, where he is respected and look upon for." Jim took a sip from his drink while watching from afar the interaction between his best friend and ex-wife. Leonard always said to him that his marriage was shook up from the start. They met young, exchanged the vows young and were parents in early years too. And with Bones putting all his focus in his career Jocelyn felt left out and started to look for affection elsewhere, in other people.

"I see..." And Selece really saw. She saw the frowning lines on McCoy forehead growing with every word coming from Jocelyn's mouth. Saw how he tighten his grip on his drink cup. He back was straighter than a board, his shoulders stiff with tension and his eyes seemed darker than usual. "Why won't you save him?" The Chizetan turned to the Captain who shrugged.

"I don't think he would like me getting into his affairs. Besides, it would hurt his man's pride."

"Man's pride. Please, and you still say that women are the emotional ones."

"But, I don't think you saving him would hurt his pride." Selece almost spitted her drink when she heard that.

"W-what?"

"Bones has a problem with relationships." Really? You can't tell, Selece thought with sarcasm. It was clear as a bright sunny day that McCoy had problems with commitment if you count that his only friend in all his years in the Starfleet was Kirk. Sure he had some acquaintances, but nobody was so close do the doctor as Jim. And if what the Captain implied that Leonard marriage went downhill because his wife couldn't stand an absent husband and looked for another without informing McCoy first of her choice, it was no surprise that the man had some insecurities. And obviously seeing her in here with another man wasn't helping either.

"I see. So I presume that the guy with her was the one that put an end to Mr. and Mrs. McCoy happily ever after."

"What make you think this?"

"Because the man is watching McCoy and Jocelyn like a hawk." And Selece was right. When Jim diverged his eyes to instructor Carmine, the same was looking to the couple in the other side of the room with a unpleasant face.

"Maybe he's thinking that now that Bones is CMO in the Starfleet flagship that Jocelyn might think about come back to her ex."

"I think you're right." Selece zeroed her attention on McCoy to see his ex giving him a brilliant smile and touching with her fingertips an uniformed shoulder. "She's really evil." Jim laughed out loud.

"Not evil, only with problems. Maybe she regrets her mistakes."

"Little late to do this, isn't it?"

"So? Are you going to help or not?"

"Okay, but only because McCoy seems about to faint." She took her drink in one gulp and got out of the bar stool, smoothing her red dress and taking calm strides in McCoy's direction. With a big smile on her face, Selece stopped beside the couple and immediately crossed her arm with Leonard's. "Honey!" She said sweetly. "I was looking for you all over the ballroom." She looked into McCoy eyes, pointedly ignoring Jocelyn's presence.

"What?" McCoy sputtered and would say something else if the pressure on his arm caused by Selece's strong fingers hadn't stopped him.

"You promised me a dance, did you forget it?" Leonard's eyes bulged from it's sockets for the second time that night and the Chizetan would keep going with this conversation if Jocelyn hadn't harrumph to catch their attention. "Oh!" Selece's smile was the most innocent that McCoy ever saw on the warrior's face. A smile that he knew didn't mean good things. "Who is this lovely girl?"

"I'm Jocelyn McCoy." The blond introduced herself and Selece's smile became bigger.

"Oh. You had a sister, Lenny. How come I never knew this?" McCoy winced with the nickname, but didn't say a thing. His eyes surrounded the room and found Kirk's eyes that were looking at them with an amusement glint in it.

"She's not my sister." Leonard finally seemed to have found his voice again. "She's my ex-wife." If Jocelyn was expecting a surprised expression from Selece, she was disappointed.

"Oh... I heard of her." The Chizetan gray eyes looked over the blond with disinterest. "From what you said I was expecting something more..." She paused and put a finger under her chin in a thoughtful gesture. "I don't know, just something more." Any smugness from Jocelyn went away with what Selece said and McCoy had to swallow a laugh.

"And who you might be?" The blond crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Selece who only smiled more in her direction. McCoy opened his mouth to answer but was beaten by the brunette.

"I'm his date." The doctor almost had a heart attack when he heard these words and his eyes went again to where Jim was, only to found the Captain almost doubling over himself because of his laugh. Damn it, that kid would kill him sooner than he expect and Selece was helping him.

"His... date?" Now was Jocelyn's turn to sputter. "Aren't you a little... young for him?"

"Young? What do you mean?"

"Well, Leonard is an experienced man..."

"Oh, I'm sure he is." Selece's tone was so full of innuendos that Bones wanted a hole to open up right now and swallow him. "But that is the good thing about him. Now, if you don't mind, the night is still young and Mr. McCoy owns me a dance. Let's go darling." And before Jocelyn could say anything else, she was already dragging a stupefied Leonard to the dance floor.

"What the hell was that?" McCoy said while on of his arms circled Selece's waist and the other caught her hand, starting to turn her around the floor along with the music.

"Don't be ungrateful. I was saving your sorry little ass. You looked like you would faint because of your ex presence. And besides, Jim ordered me to rescue you."

"I was not about to faint. Maybe I was a little shocked, but that was it. And now your stunt will worse the rumors."

"What rumors?"

"I can't believe you never heard of it."

"What? The gossip about you, Jim and I being in a threesome? Yes, I heard before. But now Jim has Spock..."

"And that would make us a couple."

"It would be so bad?" McCoy keep dancing and when with one turn he saw his ex-wife's face over Selece's shoulder, he had to smile a little. Jocelyn didn't look happy. Maybe she thought that after the end of their marriage he would be more grumpy than usual and antisocial. Obviously that seeing him in a Starfleet ball having as a date a pretty girl like the Chizetan in his arms ended any assumption of her.

"No, I don't think so. And thanks for the rescue. My relationship with Jocelyn didn't end well and I guess I'm still affected by it. Never thought that I would meet her here, and never thought I wouldn't be prepared for this meet."

"The pleasure is all mine. But rest assured that now you own me and when the time comes..."

"I knew that this wasn't only an act of kindness from you."

"Of course not!"

"You little blackmailer. You're spending too much time with Jim, because you're starting to sound like him." Selece blinked and had a sense of dejà vu, what make her laugh out loud.

"God forbid this."


	13. Home

Kirk never knew that Chizeta would be such a beautiful planet. With the bluest sky that he ever saw, lands until you can't see it anymore full of colors and cities that it seemed it came straight out from a fairy tale, or at least from a old fantasy cartoon, Jim could say that this was the place he would like to live after he's retired. With only one exception: the way that The High Council members were looking at his best friend wasn't so welcoming as the planet's atmosphere. It looks like to them, the pretty brunette was defying all laws by simple being there.

And damn if Selece didn't like to cause a commotion. Starting with the fact that now her shoulder length hair wasn't compatible with the short hair regular to the warrior class. Her smug expression wasn't even close to the emotionless expression that Jim was seeing on the High Council bodyguard's face and being a Starfleet officer, serving under the Earth's hero and in the Federation flagship obviously was going against what was predicted by the Council about her future. Selece wasn't, for them, good enough to be their warrior, but she still was the best that the Academy ever saw.

"How can a man in your position accept such a defective person in your crew, Captain Kirk?" Counselor Nioe said with disdain and Jim closed his hands in a fist, hiding them behind his back. His smile became strained and he glanced at Selece to see her reaction. The brunette only raised one eyebrow but didn't say anything in her defense.

"Excuse me?" The USS Enterprise Captain said with wariness.

"PT 4256, also known as Selece, was banished along with her creator from this planet for infringe the rule 545 paragraph 2C."

"May I inquiry Counselor..." Spock's voice reached Kirk's ears that was already thumping because of the rush of the blood to it. How dare these people say that his friend was defective? Selece was one of the most brilliant officers he had in the ship. After all, the Enterprise only had the best of the Starfleet, and she also saved his pretty little behind a lot of times. "what this rule refers about?"

"It's prohibit attachment between creation and creator, but it seems that Dr. Liori broke this rule. We caught PT 4256" Jim frowned intensively. She had a name and it was Selece. To be called by those numbers made her seem like a thing, not a live and rational being. "calling his creator with the title of 'father' more than one time." Jim and Spock exchanged a look and Kirk asked himself why his friend wasn't defending herself. All the time that the Counselor was talking with that tone of disdain, Selece only looked at him with darkened gray eyes but said nothing. It wasn't her nature to take an offense without one or two punches as a comeback, and her lack of reaction was pretty weird in Kirk's opinion.

"And what is so wrong with this?" Kirk almost spat the question on Nioe's face and the Counselor only gave Selece a long look that she seemed to understand very well.

"Captain." The brunette's voice reached Jim's enraged mind and brought his attention to her. "We are here to negotiate Chizeta entering the Federation, am I right?" Jim huffed. Chizeta was a planet that even if it collaborates with the Federation on time or another, still wasn't part of it. And now the young Captain was questioning himself if the effort was valid. They seemed too prejudiced by Jim's opinion and without any logical explanation for this emotional detachment between them. Vulcans he could understand, they were a race that had emotions, Spock proved that to him many times already, but chose to follow the logical pat because they felt more than humans and didn't want to be affected by that. But the Chizetan didn't have any excuse.

"Right." The Captain let out a long breath and composed himself, everything under the High Council's watchful eyes.

"If you follow me Captain Kirk." Nioe made a small gesture with his hand, pointing a pat along the corridor and Kirk moved to follow him, being imitated by his crew. "She can't come." The Counselor said when he saw Selece's movements.

"What?" Jim blinked and looked at his best friend, opening his mouth to say something but being interrupted by Selece.

"I'll wait for you here Captain."

"You can't!" Kirk protested. "She is my Security Officer." He said, looking to Nioe with flames of fury glowing in his blue orbs.

"I trust that Commander Spock will do a marvelous job in my absence." Marvelous? Absence? Since when Selece was the big words type of girl? She could curse more than a drunk sailor from the nineteen century and in five different languages.

"But..." Jim tried to protest one more time, but Spock was the one to stop him.

"Captain, Chizeta's High Council is waiting for us." The High Council could wait until hell freeze over if Kirk had any say in this, but the look that the half-Vulcan gave to Jim for everybody couldn't mean nothing, but Kirk understood very well. It was for him to shut up, go to the negotiations and wait for them to go back to theEnterprise to let out all his frustrations. And shut up Jim did and followed the Council into the conference room, leaving Selece behind.

It took two and a half hours for the office's door used for the reunion to open again and along this time Selece stayed put waiting for Spock and Jim return. Kirk passed by her like a storm about to touch the earth and she could almost see the dark clouds above his head together with the lightnings and thunders. She opened her mouth to say something and a 'Captain' was about to be spelled, but Jim's face made Selece swallow her words. Bemused, she glanced at Spock and his dark eyes fell on her with an ice glow in it that almost froze her.

"What happened..." Over Spock's shoulder she saw a bunch of Chizetan counselors and automatically she said afterwards. "... sir." If was possible, Spock's eyes became glacier just with what she said. "Was the deal sealed?"

"We could not reach an agreement, so the negotiations were postponed until tomorrow." Spock's back was more rigid than a board and Selece thought that he would snap any minute now. Behind him, the counselors were looking at them with a dark expression on their wrinkled faces and the weight of their look on them seemed to make the half-Vulcan become more and more tense. "Perhaps is better for us to go as well." Selece raised an eyebrow because Spock's tone seemed very contrite and he did something she never thought he was capable of, not without a gun pointed between his eyes, he touched her.

Nothing perverted, just a brief touch of his fingertips over the wrist hem of her shirt, but even then it was shocking. Her eyebrows almost disappeared under her hairline and when her gray orbs looked to the long fingers, Spock seemed to realize what he was doing and brought his hand close to his body so fast that it was like he had been burned. But nothing compared to the intensity of the counselors' gaze while they were leaving.

"What's wrong?" Selece finally asked when they were far away enough that the other Chizetan wouldn't be able to hear them. "Why the Captain left the room like the fire of hell was after him?"

"Perhaps is better if you ask the Captain yourself." Spock stopped outside the building used as an administrative center of the town and opened his comm, calling the Enterprise.

"Are you sure he's not gonna bite me if I ask something?" Was the last thing she said before the world around her disappear in bright little dots and reappear as theEnterprise's transport room.

"What happened down there?" Scott surprised face was what welcomed them. "The Captain just passed by us with an expression like he was about to kill someone." Selece glanced at Spock whose shoulders became, if possible, stiffer.

"You better go after him, Lieutenant. It's an order." Without having a way to protest this, she did what she was told and went searching for Kirk, only to find him fifteen minutes later in the observation deck, pacing like a caged animal.

"Captain..." Selece started to say, but was abruptly interrupted.

"How dare they!" Jim growled, turning to fix his glowing with fury eyes on the woman. "For two hours I had to listen their bullshit. Two hours of them saying that enter the Federation was a bad idea because if it can accept defective people, why would they want to be part of it?" He turned and before Selece could do or say anything, he punched the wall.

"Jim!" She called with alarm, going to him and taking his hand between hers. The knuckles were starting to swell a ugly purple color while the blond was still fuming and vibrating with anger.

"And you! You just stood there and did nothing. All big words and politeness, like you were somebody else. Like you were ashamed of who you are!"

"Is not that simple, Jim."

"Why not? Where is the fierce girl that can knock out a bunch of big guys with one hand? That do crazy shit because of a crazy person like me? That don't take this bullshit quietly?"

"She's still here."

"Where?"

"It's just... Coming back home after so many years brought back bad memories."

"You told me that you never cared about what you people said about you."

"I lied. It's hard to be banished from your own home, Jim. You know this better than anyone." It seemed that all Kirk's fury was gone with what she said. He knew better than anyone how was to feel unwanted.

"Just because you call your creator 'father'?"

"It's more than that. You saw how Chizeta is. For my people, perfection is above everything. They have perfect political system, perfect environment, perfect people. The planet is beautiful the way it is because its people made it to be that way. And, obviously, that their pet project, their perfect soldiers to protect their perfect planned little world could not be any different."

"But you are perfect. Your genetic..."

"Have some faults."

"What?" Jim blinked, surprised. Bone always used to joke calling Selece 'genetic enhanced little freak' because of her all perfect planned proportions, but now the woman was telling him that some things were not what they seemed to be? It was crazy.

"I was Dr. Liori pet project. He loved someone back home, a warrior, loved him..." Jim was startled. Him? "Yes, him, he loved him enough to want the perfect family with his love, like any other good Chizetan, aiming too for perfection. So he created me."

"I don't understand." Selece rolled her eyes.

"Chizeta has one flaw. Hierarchy. A warrior marries warrior, a politic marries a politic, everyone has to be involved with someone from their own class, it doesn't matter if it's a male or a female, it has to be from your class. An intellectual falling in love for a warrior was practically a blasphemy. Worse is that he used his knowledge in genetics to create a baby that is the best of both, a symbol of this forbidden love."

"You mean..."

"Yeah, I have two genetic fathers and no genetic mother. Dr. Liori was the first in all the alfa quadrant to be able to do this, put together two sets of DNA in a third person, suppressing this third person DNA to create a baby only with the first two sets."

"But if you are unique shouldn't they..."

"I belong to no class. I have the intelligence of the intellectual class and the body of the warrior class and this scares them. Because I'm unpredictable, my system is unpredictable and they can't say what I will be really capable to do. So, for this, they banished us. My father and I."

"What about your other father?" Selece turned her face, looking to the stars glowing beyond the watching window.

"He died protecting us. He gave his life to make sure that Liori and I could escape from Chizeta." Jim gulped. In the end they had more similarities than he thought.

"You're trying to make me pity you?" He arched his eyebrows.

"No fucking way. I'm just explaining to you why they don't like me."

"I get this part, what I don't get is why you were so formal and so distant while we where down there."

"Sorry, guess I had a momentary lapse for seeing the people who banished me from my home. It won't happen again."

"See that don't." Jim took a long breath and took his hurt hand from between Selece's finger. "And for you to know, and being a little sappy, my grandma used to say that home is where the heart is. So, Lieutenant, where is your heart?" Selece gave him a half smile, looked around them and then chuckled.

"I guess it is with this crazy guy that makes me cross the Universe in this amazing ship along with more crazy people."

"That's the spirit."

"Indeed Captain, indeed."

The next day the landing party went back to Chizeta to return to the negotiations and Kirk felt his skin burn when he saw the disgusted expression on Counselor Nioe's face.

"I thought we said that for us it's not a good deal to enter an organization that can accepts such a kind of person." And his dark eyes fell over Selece like she was the dirty on his shoes.

"Counselor..." The brunette opened her mouth before Jim could say anything in her defense. "Why don't you fuck off?" Spock arched one eyebrow and Kirk suppressed a laugh when he saw the perplexed look on the Council's face.

"That is my girl. Now guys if you don't mind..." Jim pointed to the conference room and smirked at Selece when he passed by her. "Well done Lieutenant," he murmured, knowing that her acute hearing would listen him. "well done."

  



	14. Last Laugh

If you asked Selece about this, she would say that it wasn't funny. It wasn't funny at all. But Jim, being the smug bastard that he was laughed his ass of when he found out about what happened. After all he was right and they were wrong and payback really was a bitch.

So it all started with one of the rare shore leaves that Starfleet gave to the Enterprise's crew. They docked on a small space port with a lot of bars and people from all the far points of the Universe, what reminded them of old truck stops that you can see along the roads across USA. For some divine miracle Jim convinced Spock to come with them to have fun, even if the half-Vulcan's face was saying that he was having anything but fun. And if you could read Spock this way, it's an indication of how pissed he was to let himself be dragged by his lover into that place.

The music was loud, people were dancing and the Romulan ale was wonderful. At some point in the night, Uhura dragged Scott to the dance floor and started to grind against him much to the Scottish pleasure. Sulu and Chekov, now a nineteen years old and aloud to drink, were having a very heated conversation about how the Romulan ale was a copy of the famous Russian vodka. Jim and Spock had disappeared to some dark corner and sometimes, when the lights struck in the right direction, they could see two forms that seemed to be trying to become one.

"I'm gonna have nightmares." McCoy grumbled and Selece rolled her eyes, taking a long shot of her ale. "And here I was thinking that that green-blooded hob-goblin didn't like to be touched in public." He gagged when he saw Jim stuck his tongue inside Spock's mouth.

"They're still in an early relationship, you can say they're still on honeymoon."

"It's more for a horny moon, than anything else. And one year isn't early." He grumbled again and Selece smirked.

"Oh Lenny, you're counting, how sweet." She singsonged and Bones grumble became louder. "How about this..." Selece grabbed the Romulan ale bottle and turned it in Leonard's cup. "you keep drinking and in about two minutes you'll forget everything that you saw this night." She served herself a bit of the ale too and clicked her cup with Leonard's.

Well, it took more than two minutes to get Bones drunk enough for him to forget everything that happened that night. And was because of that that in the next morning he woke up with a killing headache and a beautiful naked brunette sleeping beside him on his bed. A brunette that he recognized as being Selece and this made him yelp and fall out of the bed, waking the girl in the process.

Selece only rolled over her body and looked at him on the floor from her spot on the bed, blinking her too bright gray eyes for the still in shock doctor.

"What are you doing over there?" Her tone was calm, like the fact that she woke up on McCoy's bed after what seemed a long night of sex, if the aches in Leonard's body were any indication, was nothing.

"Wha-what the hell happened?" He almost yelled, but remembered in the last second that this wouldn't be good for his pounding head.

"Wow, that Romulan ale was good. You don't remember?" Bones' answer was to glare at her. "I have to say Lenny..." He didn't like the nickname and even less the smirk that was blossoming on her face. "Doctors know how to use their hands." If McCoy was capable to blush, that was the day for him to show it.

"It's not funny!" He looked at himself, naked and with his legs trapped by the sheets, and then to the girl still on the bed. He blushed more, trying and failing to cover important parts of his anatomy.

"Why are you being so prude now? Last night you didn't care if I look. And let me tell you... You don't have anything to be ashamed of." Bones was about to explode if his face getting redder by the minutes was any indication.

"Again..." He stuttered. "Not funny!" And Selece laughed.

"Come on Lenny, don't be ridiculous. Come back to bed. It's early, it's our day of and I want to sleep more."

"Nobody is stopping you." Selece rolled her eyes and hit him with the pillow, making McCoy growl in annoyance.

"A beautiful naked woman is on your bed, asking you to join her in a nap and maybe, later, another round of sex, and you are saying no?"

"No." Selece blinked. "I mean, yes... I mean..." She smiled and McCoy sighed, getting up and climbing on the bed. Selece opened some space for him and when he was under the covers again, she got closer and hugged him.

Bones took a deep breath when he felt the smooth skin and the curves aligned against his body and got tense for a few seconds. It was a long time since he shared his bed with a woman, specially a woman like Selece, so strong minded, so beautiful and so young. As the minutes passed he relaxed little by little and when he looked again to the girl was only to see that she was using his chest as a pillow and was sleeping over it, like what happened last night was an everyday occurrence.

After a while he finally relaxed enough to sleep again, only to be woke up later by a Jim Kirk entering his cabin without announcement.

"Bones I need..." The flow of words stopped the moment the Captain's blue eyes fell over the two bodies on the bed. "WHAT THE HELL!" McCoy and Selece woke with a jump, with the girl going for the phaser under her clothes on the floor and stopping in the middle of her movements when her brain registered that the scream came from Kirk.

"Dammit Jim, I almost shot you!" She grabbed the sheets, covering her body with it and sent a glare to the blond mouth gaping at the door. "Nobody ever told you to never, ever, wake up a Chizetan warrior by surprise? Other people were killed for less than that." She would start to complain about people interrupting her sleep, but a beet red McCoy and a still gaping Captain stopped her. "What?"

"You... him... Both..." Jim pointed at them, still very surprised to form any words.

"Yes Kirk, what you are seeing is what you are getting." Bones, still very flustered, said before the blond's brain started to work again and the jokes begin to flow.

"But..." Jim blinked and blinked until everything clicked together and a smirk blossomed on his face. "If I say I told you so..."

"In your next physical there will be so many hypos that you'll look like a swiss cheese." Bones threated him with no avail, because the next words that came from his mouth were:

"I told you so." And Jim left, laughing his ass of, before the pillow that Selece threw hit him.

"Dammit, I hate when he's right." She grumbled. "Now he'll be annoying us for months."

"When he is not annoying us?" Bones arched his eyebrows and Selece blinked repeatedly.

"True." Silence came after that until Selece broke it with a phrase that made McCoy blush again. "So, I think I promised another round of sex after our nap."

"Wha..." He paused, thinking for a few seconds. "You know what? Fuck it." Selece laughed and after that saw herself being pulled by Leonard against his broad chest and kissed senseless. And if a few days later all the ship's crew were looking to them with laugh in their eyes, they ignore it, but Jim learned the lesson to never again be a gossiper when his neck hurt for days because of the hypos he received in his physical. But even then nothing would take his joy for have the last laugh. Nothing at all.

 


	15. Envy

"Leonard McCoy, don't you dare walk away from me!" The scream came followed by the Chizetan angry steps while she tried to catch up with Bones. The doctor seemed more like a blur while going around the sickbay treating the patients that were coming in by the minute. Apparently the last away mission didn't bring with them only some plant samples and some new data, but also a fungus that was making half of the crew vomit their guts and have a fever that was being hard to fight back. Luckily that the thing wasn't deadly, but also it wasn't for the Enterprise's best interest to have half of its team out of the league for a while.

Bones sighed, stopping abruptly and Selece almost crashed against him.

"What?" He growled at her and the Chizetan only glared back.

"Don't use that tone with me, mister."

"Damn woman, I'm busy. Patients to care, doctor things to do..."

"Well, I need to talk to you."

"Now?"

"You are a doctor, and I need a doctor advice." Leonard frowned and before she could say anything else he was already in front of her scanning her body with his tricoder.

"You seem healthy to me."

"Yeah, so if I'm healthy why the hell did you give me a medical leave? I can still do my job, you know." Nurses and patients had to stop what they were doing to see the discussion between the CMO and the Security Officer. Their fights were as famous as Spock and McCoy's discussions.

"I don't doubt it, but right now you are incapable to do it." That was the wrong thing to say, it was what passed through everyone's mind. McCoy could be a great doctor, but he didn't have any tact.

"WHAT?" Everybody who knew Selece also knew that she was a very temperamental woman, but rarely anyone ever heard her scream or lost her composure. But for everything there is always a first time. "Incapable? Are you saying that right now I'm some kind of a cripple?"

"No, what I'm saying..."

"The almighty doctor thinks that just because he knows one thing or two about medicine he can rule over what I want and what I know about my body..."

"It's nothing like that..." Bones tried to explain himself but Selece was too busy with her tirade to listen to him.

"But you know what?" She poked him in the chest with her point finger. "You know nothing!"

"I know..." Leonard grabbed the finger with his hand, stopping the poking. The digit was like a damn stick made of steel and it hurt like a hell, specially that when angry Selece didn't know how to control her strength very well. "That what I'm trying to do is keep you and the baby safe because, apparently, you like to forget that you are pregnant!"

"Forget?" She screeched and the ones with sensitivity hearing in the sickbay made a pained face because of the noise. "How I can forget the horrible breast pain, the nauseas, the aches and the fact that my husband spend more time inside this damn medical bay than with me!" She finished her speech with a whimper and everybody took one step back when they saw tears starting to form in the brunette's eyes. That was the second thing they weren't used to see: Selece crying. And if it was happening nothing good was about to come.

"Not again." Bones rolled his eyes. He was busy lately okay? Between a Captain who was allergic to the air he breaths and a live magnetic for trouble and a crew down with a flu caused by a fungus he didn't have time for her whining. Or complaints. For gods sake, she was only four weeks pregnant and it seemed like the world was ending.

Okay, he gave her a medical leave, forbade her to do anything that could jeopardize her and the baby's life and he had the Captain's agreement. After all, it was only two days ago that Selece tried to protect Jim from an angry four legs with big teeth creature from the planet they were exploring with her own body. At least her mother's instincts were intact. But now she needs to remember that she had another baby to protect and that Kirk's safety was now the green-blooded hob-goblin's job.

"It's simply not fair." She whimpered again. "How am I suppose to do my job when I have you and Jim against me?"

"Honey we are not..." He tried to touch her arm, offer some comfort, but she got away brusquely.

"Don't touch me!"

"What's going on in here?" Great, just what they need, more fuel to add to the fire, was what Bones thought. "Selece... Are you crying?"

"Shut up!" Selece glared at Kirk. "This is your fault. This is both your fault." She accused and turned on her heels, leaving the sick bay fuming all the way out.

"Trouble in paradise?" Kirk gave his best friend his best smirk.

"Shut up!"

"I told it would be a bad idea to take Selece out of the front." Bones frowned.

"How... You are a coward. How come you didn't tell her that the medical leave was your idea? Now I'm the one with the over emotional wife and a couch to sleep this night."

"Are you kidding me? You said yourself... Over emotional. And besides, it's my goddaughter or godson in there, I had to do something to protect them."

"Yeah, and in the mean time I'm the one who suffer."

"I told you that pop up the question was a bad idea. Never thought you would still had this in you after what happened with Jocelyn."

"Well... She is years younger than me, it really helps to boost my ego."

"Don't let her hear you say that."

"No, what she will hear it's that the idea to put her out of her feet was yours... I just happened to agree."

"Now who is being a coward?"

"Shut up."

"You know, it is at times like these that I'm happy that I married Spock. Never will suffer the torture of what is a hormonal pregnant woman. So I don't envy you, at all."

"Who knows. I mean, you never know what kind of Vulcan Voodoo he can make." Bones provoked and Jim went pale.

"Are you serious?" The Captain asked in a trembling tone and Bones just shrugged.

"Maybe, maybe not. Maybe just time will know." He turned, ready to get back to his work and leave a stunned Captain behind.

"Bones!" Jim seemed to have snapped out of his stupor. "It's not funny!" Bones just smirked to his friend.

"One thing is for sure. I'll not envy you. I'll not envy you at all."


	16. Alternative Universe

 

 

She said she would go through the gates of hell and back for him and he couldn't help but think how would have been if they met earlier in life. She probably would be the girl next door, recently moved into the Jones' old farm. They wouldn't have met at first, but only on Monday when the pre-school started. The children in his class would be mocking him because of his high IQ and his absent father and she would shoo them away with threats and some fist. And then, they would fight because he didn't need a girl to defend him, really didn't.

But the problem was that Jim Kirk was antisocial child so then the only person who was brave enough to approach him was the new girl. And man she was stubborn. It didn't help that both seemed to be equally stubborn.

They started to stuck together because they seemed to have the same problem: one dead parent and the other was always away from home. But she was lucky, she had a kind nanny to take care of her. He had Frank, and man how he hated him. Hated him enough to fight with his fists against him, even if he was so small that he didn't stand a chance against the man, but he always could scream. And scream he did and Selece came to his rescue again, like in pre-school, and broke Frank's jaw. Jim was stunned. She was just a little girl and when she smiled at him and explained why she could do what she did he started do call her "his warrior goddess".

And the fights keep going. Sometimes Sam would come to his rescue, other times Jim would just run away to his best friend's house seeking for refuge. But one day Sam got sick and tired of that and decided to be the one to run away. Jim only stood on the road watching his brother leave and getting more mad by the seconds. It was all Frank's fault and he should suffer like he was suffering. So he stole the red Corvette and drove.

Drove until the cop asked him to stop and he didn't. Drove until he saw the cliff ahead and smiled, because he could end everything now, he could be free, but something, in the last minute, made him change his mind. And he found out what when he saw himself in the police station and a crying Selece came to him and slapped him... Hard. He got a bruise that stayed in his left cheek for weeks as a reminder of how stupid he was.

And the red Corvette incident finally brought his mother attention to him. And her disappointment. He couldn't understand why she was so disappointed. She was the reason for that family to be falling apart but was incapable to see that. And so, as a brilliant solution, she decided to send him to Tarsus IV. It would do him some good, a new scenario and new friends. He protested, vehemently, he didn't need a new friend, he had Selece and Selece also didn't like the idea. But her father agreed that they should spend some time apart. Jim was becoming a troublemaker and a bad influence for his little girl. But they still talked, every week, for hours no end and Jim was happy, he truly was happy even if he missed her a lot and she was happy for him.

And then the fungus came, the famine came, Kodo came. All the communications were cut and they were isolated from any form of outside contact. Isolated to die. And Jim saw himself fighting again, fighting for his life, for other children's life, and wishing that Selece was beside him. And after this thought he would feel guilt because she didn't deserve what he was going through. But sometimes, only sometimes, when the despair was big enough, when the little ones were crying with hunger, he let himself to be selfish again and wish she was there.

And then the Starfleet came, came to save everyone who survived the genocide. Came to take them home and Jim was back do Iowa to a crying mother and to a house minus Frank, thank goodness. He was back with hate and nightmares and coldness. His mother tried to talk to him with no success, the school counselors tried to help in vain... Selece tried to help, she tried to talk, tried and tried while ignoring the screams to leave him alone. And he was angry because now she wanted to make amends, but she wasn't there when he needed her most, when he wished with every fiber of his being for her. And he screamed more, and pushed her away and said things he really didn't mean but the rage was blinding him and changing his words.

And he made her cry. Selece cried, tears of pity, tears of rage, and reacted with the only way she knew. She broke his nose and screamed back for him to stop being so stupid because the worst had passed and he was there, with them. He was a survivor, because Destiny has decided that it still needed him for something big. He still needs to prove that he was something more than George Kirk's kid. With that Jim's rage was gone and he was back to be the same rebellious kid from before. The nightmares also were gone.

They were each other first sexual experience. It was awkward, messy and they laughed a lot of each other when it ended. After that they never shared a bed again if wasn't only to sleep. Jim beat to a bloody pulp the first boy who broke Selece's heart. Selece threatened with horrific scenarios the first girl that used Jim just because he was the son of a hero. She was there when he graduated at high school only to say how proud she was of him. She was there to save his ass from the bar fights and sometimes she would join him, and she let him sleep away his hangover in her bedroom, far away from her father's ears and eyes.

She was the first one that he ran to when Christopher Pike appeared. It was another night of drinks, another fight and Chris really had a loud whistle. And he challenged him, challenged Jim to be something better, something great, and he couldn't say no. As also Selece. The moment he said that he was joining Starfleet her only answer was that she was going with him. And he let her because it was what he wanted, he was being selfish and wasn't giving a damn. And then they met Bones and suddenly he saw himself with something he never had: a family.

Damn, he thought one day, but Selece really acted like she was his mother and Bones like his father. And he didn't give a damn, because he like it. He would never confess, but he loved it. Finally somebody cared. Cared enough to advice him it was a bad idea to take the Kobayashi Maru for the third time, cared enough to sneak him into the  _Enterprise_. Cared enough to be there.

"I would go through the gates of hell and back for you Jim." She said to him once, and she kept her promise. Now that everything was calm, that the  _Enterprise_ was limping back to Earth after defeating Nero, he couldn't help but think how true she was.

"Captain?" The call made him snap out of his thoughts and turn his eyes away from the passing stars to the beautiful woman at the door.

"I'm not the Captain." He protested and she smiled, walking to Jim and seating in front of him.

"Pike is still unconscious and Spock emotionally compromised. So I think you still have the post."

"Bones sent you, didn't he?"

"Well, I don't blame him. It will be need the strength of ten men to drag you to the sickbay. And I am these men."

"Worrywart."

"He has his reasons. You were strangled, marooned and had to fight angry romulans twice. Even me would have some aches here and there."

"Not him... You." Selece blinked repeatedly and Jim smiled, having caught her in her mother hen mode again.

"I'm proud of you Jim." She said after some minutes in silence and Jim felt a warm emotion run through his body with these words.

"And I thank you... For being there."

"You're welcome." More silence. "Now, what were you thinking when I came here?" It was Jim's turn to blink repeatedly.

"How would have been if we met earlier." Selece smiled.

"I don't know, maybe you would have been a pain in the ass... But we still would be friends." She got up and caressed his face with her fingertips. "We went through hell and back, didn't we?"

"Yes... But I'll always be invincible if I have you with me." She smiled.

"So I shall to always be by your side my friend. Always."


	17. Siblings

 “So... You and Bones huh?”

“So... You and Spock.”

“Spock and I are old news.”

“As also Lenny and I.”

“Lenny?” An arched eyebrow.

“Shut up!”

“If I say I told you so...”

“Then don't. Actually, when you will stop gloating?”

“Never.”

“I hate you!”

“No you don't.”

“Don't be cocky.”

“My best trade.” Silence.

“So... Now that mommy and daddy finally took the next step in their relationship, when I will have siblings?” A wrench was hurled in the Captain's direction. Jim took a step aside to avoid the tool.

“I should have sent you to the board school when I had the chance. You became such a spoiled child.”

“But you still love me.”

“Shut up.” More silence.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“Siblings? When I will have one?” This time it was a screwdriver that was hurled in Jim's direction. Again he stepped aside to avoid the tool on the head.

“Shut up and get the hell out of here!” The blond man only laughed hard and did what was told.

And if two years later he was holding in his arms a beautiful baby boy with Selece's gray eyes and Bones' scowl he couldn't help to be extremely happy to know that now he was a big brother.

 

 


	18. Hands off

“Would you please stop doing this?” Selece growled when she saw Jim touching her breasts for the third time.

“I can't help it, I always wanted to do this.” He touched it again and had his hand promptly slapped away from them.

“If you love being a woman so much, I can always undergo a sex change surgery in this body.” She pointed to herself and Jim made an outraged face.

“Okay, I'm stopping.”

“Thanks. Now, what were you saying McCoy?” Baby blue eyes turned to Leonard's direction and the doctor blinked a couple of times before he found his voice again and opened his mouth to answer.

“You do realize that this is too weird for my taste.” Bones complained.

“Weird? For you? What about us?” Selece pointed to herself and then to Jim. 

To make the story short, this conversation was a result of another away mission that went wrong. Pretty wrong. The kind of wrong that ended with Jim trapped in Selece's body and vice versa. Apparently it wasn't a good idea to discuss point of views so heatedly in front of a new specie that believes that good lessons should be learned by first hand. And this mean some hocus pocus that rendered Selece and Jim unconscious followed by Spock's order to beam them up and a trip to the sickbay only for them to wake up and find out that they weren't who they were supposed to be. 

“Well, you two...” McCoy ran the tricoder over their body. “are very healthy for two people in the wrong body.”

“Thanks for the obvious. What I want to know is if I'll have my body back. I know women would kill to be in my position, but I'm not so thrilled about this situation. And Jim, if your hands go to my breasts one more time...” Jim laughed and dropped his hands, with the sound that he was making being too soft for what they were normally used to hear. “You seem pretty calm for someone trapped in a woman's body.”

“Well, I'm only following the flow.”

“Following the flow? Aren't you a little bit worried about this?”

“Well, the Sancers witches said that everything would solve by itself. So I presume that the spell or will wear off sometime or when the lesson is learned. It's cliché.”

“I'm so happy to know that.” But her face was anything but happy. 

“Well...” Jim jumped off the biobed. “If there is nothing wrong with us...” Leonard gave him a look. “besides the obvious, I think I'm going.”

“Going? Where?” Selece asked with one raised eyebrow.

“To my cabin. I'm still covered with dust from that planet and my skin is itching for a good shower.”

“No smart ass. You are going to _my_ cabin.”

“What?” Jim gaped at his friend.

“I know McCoy will report to Spock what happened, but I'm correct to assume that you don't want anyone beside him to know about our currently predicament. So, you'll be acting like me and go to my quarters and I'll go to yours.”

“I don't see what problem will be if the crew knew the true.”

“Problem? How about the Starfleet knowing about this?”

“I trust my crew.”

“Okay, but I don't trust you.”

“Excuse me?” Jim screeched, what Selece thought wasn't very becoming to her, or at least to her body. 

“You are like a horny teenager and I don't trust you to not jump your little lover while you are me. Because I really don't want to get my body back and find out that I'm expecting half-breeds from a Vulcan.” 

“You can get impregnate?” Jim gave her a strange look, one that Selece didn't like very much. “I thought that your genetic wouldn't allow reproduction.”

“Of course it allows reproduction, the selected mothers for us were from the warrior class too. But that is not the point.”

“I know what the point is. How about this, I'll keep this from the crew, except the Science Department, we could use their brains to help us solve this problem, and you let me go to my cabin.”

“How about this, it'll be pretty strange for the crew to see the Captain sleeping in a simple Security Officer quarters while this same officer is sleeping in the Captain's.”

“I could say I lost a bet.”

“What about my roommate?” Jim made a face when she reminded him that. 

“Okay, I'll go to your quarters, you go to mine and I so hope this thing pass fast or I'll fire my lady's cannons on that damn planet without any mercy. Good?”

“Good.” Selece agreed and saw when Jim, in her body, started to leave the sick bay. “And hands off of my breasts!” She said to him when the Captain went through the doors, leaving behind as an answer to her warning a laugh which was Jim's trademark. 

 


	19. Smile

Leonard McCoy was a man from the 23rd century raised by old traditions. So, when he proposed to Selece, he said to her that he was doing it in the old fashioned way, meaning that he was going to speak with her father and ask her hand in marriage to him. Selece, obviously, laughed until she lost her breath and tattled to Jim Leonard's idea, turning the doctor the Captain's source of amusement for weeks until their next shore leave on Earth.

But nobody can say that Leonard 'Bones' McCoy wasn't a brave man. After all, he spent the last two and a half years in a ship, a thing that he hates most, under the orders of a crazy brat.

So with this in mind he grabbed Selece's hand and together they walked the last meters between them and the brilliant doctor waiting for them in the pier over San Francisco's bay.

Dr. Liori was a legend, well known in all Federation even with his dark past in Chizeta. He helped a lot with his knowledge in genetics since his coming to Earth and McCoy did make a paper or two, or a dozen, about the Chizetan doctor's work. So yeah, he was about to ask his role model the hand of his daughter in marriage and inside he was pretty scared, even if outside he seemed steady like a rock.

“ _Navta?_ ” McCoy had to admit that he loved to hear Selece speaking her home planet language. “ _Daro ta_ Leonard McCoy _, asu bayravd._ ” 

Dr. Liori's gray eyes fixed on Leonard's form and the CMO felt a chill run down his spine when he saw himself under the other doctor's intense gaze. Selece had the same eyes as her father, also the same hair color, with Liori's being, now, a little on the grey side than her black as night color. But beside that, the Chizetan warrior other features where nothing alike the geneticist, what made Leonard think that she was physically more like her other father. 

“ _Bayravd?_ ” The word coming from Selece's mouth was like an endearment, from Dr. Liori's mouth seemed like a curse. 

“ _Ja_.” She smiled a brilliant smile in her father's direction, before turning to McCoy to squeeze his hand in reassurance, and took a step away from him. Bones wanted to call her back immediately when he saw she was walking away to give them some privacy to talk, especially that Liori's judging eyes were on him again. 

“So...” Leonard almost jumped in place when he heard Liori's rough voice addressing him. “My daughter told me that you wanted to talk to me.” Dr. Liori had a very strong accent, like someone who was a beginner in their English class, pronouncing the words like they were spelling every syllable. 

“Yes. I would like to ask your permission...” Leonard paused and gulped. Those gray eyes were really scary. Funny, because with Selece they were lovely. “ _sir_ to marry your daughter.” There, he said it, now he only had to wait for the 'yes'. He hoped that the good old doctor would give him a 'yes'. But his hopes were dying as the seconds ticked by without an answer. 

“No.” Well, McCoy couldn't say that he wasn't expecting that. Liori's face was a big give away of his thoughts, thoughts that probably were saying that Leonard wasn't good enough for his baby girl. But again, nobody can say that Bones was the kind of guy to go down without a fight. 

Selece and him were both consenting adults, they could marry if they want to and the world can just go to hell. But, as previously said, Leonard was also a guy who was raised in the old fashioned way. The way where a man is taught to treat a woman right and to ask her parents for permission to court and marry her. 

“With all due respect sir, but why not?” 

“My daughter is too good for you.” A blow in the guts. Dr. Liori seemed to be the kind of man who doesn't measure his words. “I created her, I raised her, I brought her to Earth so she could have the best of all things. For me, you are not the best of all things.”

“Sir, I...” Leonard had to defend himself. He wasn't perfect, nobody was, not even Selece with all her genetic enhancement, but he was also a father, he had a little girl so he knew a bit about how Dr. Liori felt. But before he could say anything, Liori raised his hand, stopping any argument from Leonard's part. 

“I investigated you Dr. McCoy. When my daughter first told me about the change in your relationship, I searched for things about you. You had the highest grades in medical school, a promising career, but you married young because you got your girlfriend pregnant. But the marriage, it seems, didn't work. Your wife betrayed you with another man while you were too busy building a name for yourself, got all you had together in the divorce, including your daughter, and left you with nothing, no even a respectable name. So tell me Dr. McCoy, what makes you think that this time the marriage will work?”

“Well, for one, Selece and I live in the same place, a spaceship, so if I ever get too busy with my work she will come along to tell in my face this. She did it before.” 

Leonard tried to smile a little to easy the tension, but he wasn't the smiley type and Liori's face didn't encourage the gesture. 

“Look...” Maybe the best course of action was to let go of the jokes and to simply tell the man the truth. “I love your daughter and it scares me shitless to feel this way. Even with my ex-wife I didn't feel this way and if you think that I never thought about what you said, I did. Selece is young, is fierce, has so much potential that scares me. She is like Jim, Jim Kirk, our Captain. For them the sky isn't the limit, is a way to beyond. Do I wake everyday thinking that this will be the day that she will leave me? Yes, I do. Do I always ask myself why does she loves me? Yes I do. But I'm also selfish, so while I have her I'll hold her with all my might and do everything in my power to never let her go. So if you don't want us to get married, fine by me, but never ask me to let her go because I won't do this, ever.” Leonard finished his speech with a long breath and waited again for Dr. Liori's reaction. 

The Chizetan only looked to the _Enterprise_ 's CMO with an arched eyebrow and then changed his eyes' direction to where Selece was waiting for them, looking for something in her cellphone. When she felt eyes on her, she turned to them and gave both men a wave and a big smile that lighted not only her face but her whole being, like she was a star herself. 

“It was a pretty speech Dr. McCoy, very moving.”

“Enough for you to give us your permission, sir?”

“Doctor, you had my permission the moment you two arrived and my daughter introduced us. But as a father, you also understand that I had to make you sweat a little.” Leonard understood and knew that he will do the same when Joanna get old enough to date, even if he prefers that she never date. But now he was curious, if he had the older doctor permission from the beginning, what made the Chizetan's mind?

“Not wanting to push my luck sir, but what made your mind if wasn't my speech?”

“You make her smile, Dr. McCoy. And this is enough for me.”


	20. Farewell

 “Jim?” Selece called, sitting beside the Captain at the window in the observation deck.

“Selece.” Jim nodded at her in recognition.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, seeing through the window the big spacial station where _Enterprise_ was attached to, and below to it the blue, green and brown picture that Earth was forming while floating lazily in the Space.

“Thinking, reminiscing.” He said, hugging his knees closer to his chest while watching the Earth below them.

“About what?”

“How the time flies.” And it did and now Selece understood why the Captain was there, looking at the spacial station where everything started.

The _Enterprise_ 's five years mission finally ended and the ship will go under a massive inspection for repairs to be launched again in some months in another five years mission. Seeing that the first one was a big success, the Starfleet decided to repeat the dose and Jim would, again, boldly go to places where no man has gone before.

But he would go without her.

“I'll miss you, terribly.” Jim turned to look at Selece's eyes. “It won't be the same without you.” And the woman gave to her best friend a sad smile and a pat on his hand. “Without Bones.” He sighed, turning again to look at the station and the Earth.

“I know, and we will miss you too.”

The decision was hard. Leonard and Selece talked for hours about it when the order came from the high command weeks before the end of the mission, saying that the _Enterprise_ was to come back to Earth to be fixed where needed to be fixed and fly again for another five years across the Space.

The problem was that Selece and Leonard couldn't go to the Space now. They had a baby, little Jimmy, named after his godfather, and in the last five years the _Enterprise_ went through so many adventures, dangerous adventures, that they knew it wasn't a place to raise a child. And Jim Kirk was aware of that, he agreed with them, but it doesn't mean it hurt less to leave one third of their trio behind.

“You'll always be the Aramis to my Porthos and Bones' Athos.” Selece laughed.

Jim started to call them The Three Musketeers when they finished the Academy, saying that Selece was smart like Aramis, while Leonard was grumpy like Athos and him adventurous like Porthos. And he was right and now they wouldn't fight together against the big bad Universe anymore.

“You still have Spock and the others.” Obviously. Besides some few officers, half of the _Enterprise_ 's crew decided to follow Jim again to deep Space. Including his First Officer. Spock would never leave his beloved husband behind, not when he knew how Jim would miss his best friends.

“I know.” Jim sighed again and hided his face on the crook of Selece's neck when she hugged him.

“You'll always be my baby, Jim. My family.” Something wet Selece's skin and she didn't have to see Jim's face to know that he was crying.

“I know.” He said with a rough voice.

“Jim...” She called him, raising his head from her shoulder and putting her hands on his cheeks. “This is not a goodbye, is only a farewell.” Selece smiled, drying his tears with her thumbs, and Jim smiled back.

He moved, indicating that he wanted to get up and she moved too, getting on her feet and giving a hand to Jim to help him up.

“Well, Lieutenant... No, Lieutenant Commander.” He said her new post with a smile and with a salute he kept going. “It was a honor to serve with you.” Selece smiled back and also saluted him.

“No, Captain, the honor was all mine.” They looked at each other for some minutes in silence, smiling a friendly smile until Selece lowered her arm and turned on her heels to leave the deck.

“Selece.” Jim called when she was already passing through the threshold and she looked over her shoulder to him. “Thank you.”

“You're welcome Jim.”

“Farewell Commander.”

“See you soon, Captain.”

And while he watched her leave, Jim thought how much he would miss her and Bones, but also thought that now he had a reason to come back. Finally he had a family to wait for him on Earth. On home.

 


End file.
